Mouth ulcer led to deadly disease

6:43am Saturday 6th September 2008

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When Heather Derkacz developed a mouth ulcer, she never imagined it was a symptom of a condition that could kill her.

But she decided to get it checked out nonetheless - and was diagnosed with potentially fatal mouth cancer.

For Mrs Derkacz, who lives with her husband, Ray, in Shipton-under-Wychwood, it was the beginning of a painful journey.

But having battled the affliction and a subsequent bout of MRSA, Mrs Derkacz has been told there are no signs of the cancer returning.

She said: "Previously I had had two other mouth ulcers and they were completely clear, so I didn't worry.

"Then I had a biopsy, just to check, in September 2005 and it was confirmed it was cancer."

The next step was a tortuous 13-hour procedure at the Radcliffe Infirmary by Dr Graham Cox - which saved Mrs Derkacz's life.

The 56-year-old said: "He replaced part of my tongue with a muscle from my neck and took an artery from my arm to feed it.

"I also had to have skin grafts to form a waterproof flap."

After the operation Mrs Derkacz caught the superbug MRSA, which delayed her radiotherapy treatment for six weeks. She said: "You just concentrate on survival and doing whatever the doctors and nurses tell you to."

After the MRSA cleared up, she had to undergo a further operation, this time at the John Radcliffe Hospital after her jaw fractured in several places.

She said: "They literally had to cut through my top lip and break my jaw and and replace it with bone from my hip. My neck was just covered in what looked like staples.

"If I hadn't gone to the doctors, I would have died - it's as simple as that. Dr Cox and the Mouth Cancer Foundation saved my life."

Later this month Mrs Derkacz will step out to raise awareness of the disease and help collect funds for the Mouth Cancer Foundation.

She will complete a 10km walk in Hyde Park, London, and hopes to raise at least £500 for the cause.

She said: "I am still struggling and I do get abscesses. I have to eat pretty much baby food, but I want to show other people that you can actually get through it."

Every three hours, someone in the UK dies of mouth cancer. The disease kills one in two people diagnosed due to late detection, making it a higher proportion of deaths per number of cases than breast cancer, cervical cancer or skin melanoma.

To find out more about the sponsored walk, go to mouthcancerwalk.org and to sponsor Mrs Derkacz go to justgiving.com/heatherderkacz