A YOUNG woman’s life was “turned upside down” after a mouth ulcer turned out to be cancer – and she claims the signs were missed by her GP.

Millie Murphy, 21, developed an excruciating ulcer in January, but it wasn’t until April that she was diagnosed with cancer.

Thinking that the ulcer would go away on its own, Millie, from Doncaster in South Yorks, didn’t push for a second opinion, even after multiple trips to the doctor when the mass swelled to three times its size.

It wasn’t until a trip to her dentist that the cancer was spotted, Millie claims, and it’s now spread to her neck.

“My life has been put on hold by this. I’ve had to relearn how to eat and have lost four stone,” she said.

“What upsets me most is that this could have been prevented from happening if there was more awareness of this disease.

“I’d had a niggling mouth ulcer on the left side of my tongue. I didn’t think anything of it though.

“It had grown about three times its original size and had started to turn a brown, green colour by this point and bled a lot.

“I would catch the ulcer on my tongue and sat up crying at night in pain.

“But after hearing all this, the doctor looked into my ear and said it was inflamed.


“My GP looked at my mouth and sent me away like I was a pest.”

The day before her 21st birthday, Millie went for a routine dental appointment and was referred to hospital where she was given the news that she had mouth cancer.

By the time she was operated on, the cancer had spread to 70 per cent of her tongue, the floor of her mouth and the lymph nodes in her neck.

Millie had to have a tracheostomy (tube in her neck) to breathe and feeding tube in her nose. The procedure has left her with scars across her body.

“My life and that of my family’s came to a stop when my consultant broke the news. I felt numb,” she said.

“Knowing you are walking around like normal, with this disease tearing through your body, rotting it away was horrible.

“Yet it never felt real, it was like it wasn’t happening to me. I couldn’t use my mouth at all, not even to talk.

“The tube leaked and spat out phlegm from my chest constantly and not being able to talk could get frustrating.”

After returning home, Millie was given the crushing news in August that her cancer had spread, this time to the right side of her neck.

Due to the size of the tumour and the fact that it spread to her jugular vein, she is now undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy to treat it.

Millie is also storing her eggs due to the side effects the treatment could have on her fertility.

“I couldn’t understand the unfairness of it all. Why was this happening again?,” she said.

“I felt weak, mentally and physically. I broke down.

“Having chemotherapy and radiotherapy at a young age is not ideal, there is a lot of unknown.

“There is the probability of reduced or complete infertility.”

Millie is determined to do everything she can to fight her cancer off and has been overwhelmed by countless messages of support.

“I’ve been embarrassed to share my journey with people for fear of being judged,” she said.

“I find mouth cancer to be disgusting and embarrassing and I’ve feared judgement for having this horrible disease.

“However, I want to raise awareness for people. My journey needn’t have been so tough if my GP had originally known the classic signs and symptoms of head and neck cancer.

“I have had the most amazing support and love from my family and close friends throughout this journey my life has taken.

“I just want to get this over with and live my life again.”

A spokesperson for Doncaster Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which runs GP services where Millie lives, said: “It is always sad when a patient is diagnosed with cancer and our thoughts go out to Millie and her family.

“One in two people in their lifetime are likely to be affected by cancer and we continue to fight against it in a number of ways.

“We continue to raise awareness of the signs to look out for and encourage patients to seek early advice. We also have an ongoing education programme with doctors to highlight cancer as a possible diagnosis.

“As a CCG working with GPs in Doncaster, we continue to prioritise the investigation of symptoms and commence early treatment when needed.

“We are making improvements year-on-year in cancer care but we know more work needs to be done.”