Woman has part of her tongue remade from leg after cancer diagnosis

“I even thought it was because of a hangover or eating spicy food that made it worse.

“I’ve had my teeth straightened and had fillings, but nothing helped.”

Charlotte underwent a biopsy and doctors realized the real problem was a cancerous tumor, a squamous cell carcinoma.

This news came as a particularly crushing blow to Charlotte and her family, as her mother Sam, now 51, had endured breast cancer after being diagnosed at age 49.

Sam had undergone a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy and was in remission when Charlotte revealed her diagnosis.

Charlotte said: ‘I just had to laugh when they told me – I was so shocked I didn’t know how to react.

“Cancer was furthest from my mind.

“The hardest part was telling my mom, so I waited to do it in person.

“She’d been through so much, and it broke my heart to tell her that her daughter also had cancer.”

Charlotte underwent nine and a half hours of surgery to cut out the affected part of her tongue and replace it with muscle from her thigh, called a “skin flap.”

They weren’t sure if the cancer had spread, so doctors removed a lymph node from her neck to be tested.

The swelling would make her have trouble breathing, so Charlotte also had a tracheostomy — an opening in the neck with a tube inserted to help her breathe.

During this terrifying time, Charlotte was supported by her partner Tom.

“The night before surgery Tom and I went for a curry – it was amazing,” she said.

‘I didn’t know when I would be able to eat or talk again.

“No one really knew what the outcome would be — the loss of the ability to speak was the scariest thing for me.”

The surgery itself went well, but Charlotte had to have another emergency surgery when her new tongue lost its blood supply.

Fortunately, doctors were able to survive and her windpipe was removed two weeks later.

After ten days she was able to say her first words since the operation.

“I said hello and everyone was in tears,” she said.

“The moment I took my first sip of water, it was really the best thing ever.

“I surprised my mother and Tom by talking to them when they arrived – it was a very emotional moment.”

To everyone’s relief, Charlotte was told that the cancer had not spread and that she would not require further treatment.

She only needed speech and physical therapy to learn to talk, eat and walk again with her new tongue and changed leg.

Now Charlotte is studying at university to become a midwife.

“The hospital staff and surgeons were incredible – I can’t thank them enough,” she said.

“If I couldn’t talk, the nurse would sit and talk to me for hours.

“It was the little things, but they were so supportive.

“In some ways I feel extremely lucky because it was noticed in time.

“I’m a rare case because I’m so young – it was a mystery to the doctors.