'I tried to ignore it, then on a caravan holiday my wife just knew something was wrong'

A dad who had his world turned upside down when his wife noticed something about his face has spoken of his nightmare.

Stuart Kingston noticed he was struggling to eat and swallow but didn't think anything of his strange symptoms.

Even when his wife Carol realised his face looked uneven the 67-year-old still didn't think it warranted a GP visit.

That was until their daughter came to visit and was shocked by the lumps in Stuart's neck and his noticeable change in speech.

The dad finally decided to see a doctor who referred him for an urgent PET scan, later being diagnosed with tongue cancer.

Tongue cancer is a rare form of the disease that accounts for around 1 per cent of all new cancer cases diagnosed annually.

In 2024, 10,825 people in the UK were diagnosed with mouth cancer, which is a 38 per cent increase from the previous decade.

Early warning signs include a sore lump or ulcer on the tongue that doesn't heal; a red or white patch on the tongue that doesn't go away; pain or a burning feeling on the tongue or difficulty swallowing or moving the tongue.

"During the pandemic, you naturally kept your distance from one another," Carol said, recalling Stuart's first signs and symptoms.

"So it was only later on in the year when we went on a caravan trip and were in close proximity to each other, sat face to face, I saw how uneven Stuart's face looked."

After his diagnosis in August 2020, retired teacher Stuart started five weeks of daily radiotherapy and then chemotherapy at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Liverpool.

He also took part in a clinical trial so he could "help someone going through the same thing in the future."

Stuart said: "The night before my treatment started, Carol and I went to see the Blackpool