Leading the fight against a killer
10:38am Saturday 15th November 2008
Comments (1)
A FOUR-YEAR-OLD boy from the North-East, who had pioneering surgery to beat a rare cancer, is the public face of a national campaign to raise awareness about mouth cancer.
Daniel Sewell, from Crook, County Durham, is now a happy, smiling schoolboy, but only three years ago his life was in the balance after it was discovered he had mouth cancer.
His story is being used by the British Dental Health Foundation to promote Mouth Cancer Action Week next week.
The message of the campaign is to make everyone aware of the need to check regularly for signs of mouth cancer and seek urgent medical attention.
Early detection massively increases the chance of beating mouth cancer.
Back in 2005, Daniel’s father, Richard, spotted Daniel’s badly swollen tongue when he was 13 months old.
Experts say his quick action probably helped to save his son’s life.
The one-year-old underwent radical surgery, which involved splitting his jaw in half to remove most of his tongue, replacing it with tissue from his stomach.
Now, with his “new”
tongue, and three years in remission, Daniel is enjoying life at Crook Primary School.
His mother, Alison, said: “I was just as ignorant as anyone about mouth cancer. I always presumed it was about the older generation and was linked with smoking.
“When we found out that Daniel had cancer we had the shock of our lives,” she said.
“If we hadn’t noticed when we did I really don’t think he would have made it.
“Mouth cancer is a silent killer, after all. Even hospital staff couldn’t believe a child of 13 months could get this disease.”
Everyone needs to be aware that mouth cancer can happen to anyone, she said.
“Now Daniel is doing fantastic.
We were so nervous when he had the operation, and we were told he might never talk properly, so when he said ‘mam’ for the first time I was just so happy. I was dancing around the kitchen.”
Nearly 5,000 people are diagnosed with mouth cancer every year and more than 1,500 die.
The foundation advises everyone to visit the dentist regularly and to look out for mouth ulcers that do not heal within three weeks, red or white patches in the mouth and unusual swellings within the mouth or neck.
Daniel Sewell overcame mouth cancer and is now the face of a campaign to urge others to make regular checks to combat the ‘silent killer'
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MCF, says...
9:13pm Sat 15 Nov 08
MOUTH CANCER AWARENESS RAP
The Mouth Cancer Foundation has produced an official rap for Mouth Cancer Awareness Week 2008.
I would be grateful if you could help make this free mp3 download available to as many people as possible to increase awareness of Mouth Cancer in a novel way by forwarding this email on to as many as you can.
You can access the rap at http://www.rdoc.org.
uk/mouth-cancer-rap.
html for FREE download or just enjoy listening to it at http://www.rdoc.org.
uk/rap/mouth-cancer-
rap.mp3
Lyrics for "Seems like it’ll never happen"
Written and performed by Mr ShaoDow (Elliot Haslam)
It’s the kinda thing you could just ignore,
It starts off with a chronic sore,
An ulcer, numb tongue or a swollen jaw,
It’s the kinda thing you could just ignore
But those small cells ain’t so small anymore
It seems like it’ll never happen,
Mouth cancer a concept further than Saturn,
So you sit back, safe in your usual pattern,
While a small gang of cells start to quietly fatten.
This health stuff, man you don’t buy it,
So you smoke, drink and keep a bad diet,
A dentist could help but you don’t wanna try it,
And those cells have nothing to say, they stay quiet.
Where will it attack? You can make your choice,
Is it the mouth? Throat? Will it take your voice?
Not a joke, not a lie, the death rate is high,
Nearly every three hours someone else will die.
So would a life style change really be so mad?
Would a trip to the dentist be so bad?
Listen to my words man, cos it’s more than banter,
Think what you could lose, if you had mouth cancer.
Thanks.
Dr Vinod K Joshi
BDS(Singapore) DRDRCS(Edinburgh) FDSRCPS(Glasgow) FDSRCS(England)
Consultant in Restorative Dentistry
Founder and Chief Executive
Mouth Cancer Foundation
http://www.mouthcanc
erfoundation.org
Mouth Cancer Foundation is a registered charity No. 1109298