Skin from arm used to rebuild tongue

A Notts teacher had skin from his arm implanted onto his tongue as part of surgery to treat his life-threatening mouth cancer. He now wants to raise awareness of the dangers of the condition. ROB PARSONS reports

TEACHER John Dabell thought nothing of it when he started to lisp in class and developed an ulcer on his tongue.

The Wollaton father-of-one became more concerned when the pain in his mouth started to get worse and GPs could give him no answers.

And what started as an annoyance turned weeks later into a devastating diagnosis – he had tongue cancer.

The 40-year-old said: "I have never smoked and I'm not a heavy drinker by any stretch. How did I get this? We ask this all the time."

But weeks after his diagnosis on his daughter Maisy's second birthday, a 15-hour operation at the Queen's Medical Centre has given him hope of a full recovery.

Surgeons Iain McVicar and Phil Hollows cut out most of the tongue to remove the tumour – then used part of Mr Dabell's arm to replace the lost tissue.

They had to saw through his chin to get access to the tumour, which was covering much of the left side of the tongue.

They then removed a section of skin with veins and arteries from his forearm and attached it to his tongue.

The blood vessels are connected up to the blood supply in the mouth to ensure the tissue in the tongue can stay alive.

Since the operation last month Mr Dabell has been recovering in hospital and at home – but has now regained the ability to swallow.

He said: "The surgeons did an amazing job over a long period of the day. They are very dedicated and committed people.

"For the two weeks on the ward I was unable to speak and had to communicate by writing everything down.

"This was enormously frustrating and also tiring. I filled five notebooks in that time."

Mr Dabell said not being able to eat or swallow after the operation was "immensely debilitating".

The keen walker has to have a food substitute pumped into his stomach for six hours a day because he cannot eat solids.

He said: "It takes a long time to learn how to swallow again but I am doing it fine now.

"Having my first cup of tea was like nectar. The next step is learning how to eat again.

"My aim is to be eating my Christmas dinner. It seems like a long way off but these things take time."

John is not out of the woods despite the success of the operation and today starts a six-week course of radiotherapy and chemotherapy to rid his mouth of cancerous cells. But he wants to raise awareness about the dangers of mouth cancer, which is being diagnosed in ever more cases across the UK.

Smoking and drinking are the biggest risk factors – though many like him can become ill despite doing neither.

He has already raised more than £1,000 for the Mouth Cancer Foundation.

His friend Richard Marriott has nominated the foundation as the chosen charity of his company MWE Ltd and will be doing the Three Peaks Challenge in September with colleagues.

John plans to do the Hyde Park mouth cancer walk in September and his ultimate aim is to go walking next year in the Trossachs, a Scottish national park where he and wife Wendy married.

He said: "This can happen to anyone – it is something that is on the increase and it is not as well-researched as some of the other cancers.

"If a celebrity suddenly developed mouth cancer millions would be spent on research."

Sue Hoyland, head teacher at Forest Fields Primary School, said they will hold a fund-raising event to support Mr Dabell's sponsored walk in September.

She said: "He was teaching Year Six, it was difficult for the children who were doing SATS.

"The children have missed him, they've written letters and some cards to him. We've got a lovely team that will help to support him when he comes back."

The tissue transfer operation is carried out an average of 20 to 25 times a year in Nottingham.

The majority of the operations are performed on people in their 60s and 70s.

Of the 183 mouth cancer patients treated at Nottingham hospitals in the last two years, only four are 40 or younger.

Mr McVicar, who has been carrying out similar operations for years at the QMC, said that face and mouth cancer was a "very emotive issue" and added: "Mr Dabell is a lot younger than we would expect for someone with mouth cancer."

To donate to the Mouth Cancer Foundation visit www.justgiving.com/johndabell or www.mouthcancer.org.

robert.parsons@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk