A man was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo an operation to remove part of his tongue after he missed a warning sign.
Dan Durant was a supervisor at a bar from Staffordshire, UK, and noticed in August of 2023 that he had an ulcer on the right side of his tongue.
Nothing too out of the ordinary, he left it be - until a split second reflex saved his life.
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Dan got ulcers on his tongue fairly often so didn't think much of it at first, using cool mint Bonjela gel to treat it, before he stopped noticing the pain.
Even though he lost a lot of weight and had a sore throat often, he wrote all of the symptoms off, explaining: "It was a grey, whitish patch. It was the size of a one pence coin.
"I didn't think of it after that. Mostly it just felt like it wasn't there."
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But then he started to notice it in April 2024. In August, Dan bit his tongue when sneezing and caused the lump to become inflamed, which caused the 26-year-old to see a doctor, where he was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, which is a type of cancer.
The health expert told him that it was aggressive and he needed surgery to get the tumour removed before it did further damage.
He admitted that he couldn't 'quite believe it could be cancer.'
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"Being told it was upsetting. I did have a cry.
"It was so surreal," he admitted.
Dan was told the cancer was aggressive and they needed to get him into surgery soon to remove the tumour, meaning that 50 percent of his tongue would be cut out so that the two discovered tumours could be taken out.
On 12 September 2024, Dan underwent the 11-and-a-half operation, where they also reconstructed his tongue using skin from his left forearm.
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"They also used my the arteries from my forearm and put them into my tongue so there was a blood flow," Dan explained.
That wasn't all though, as surgeons dissected his neck to remove a cancerous lymph node to test, as the 26-year-old is currently waiting for results from the biopsy on this, which will confirm if he needs further treatment.
He shared: "The nurse said 'you were lucky you bit your tongue'."
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After eight days of recovering in hospital, he had to get used to eating and drinking again, as he is on a soft food diet while waiting for the results.
"Learning to swallow properly was quite difficult," he admitted, adding that he is 'getting used to chewing' again, which is bringing on some 'jaw aches'.
If all goes well, he revealed: "If there is little to no cancer cells left I will just be one round of radiotherapy."
Dan was set to start a new job prior to his diagnosis, but as he is currently out of work and recovering, the former bar supervisor set up a GoFundMe to help raise money for his living costs over the next few months, vowing to donate any excess to cancer research.
"Everything is normal and then all of a sudden it is not.
"It's a life-changing thing," Dan concluded.
You can donate to the GoFundMe here.
Joshua Nair