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Steve Hollingsworth |
Camden | Health | Mouth Cancer | Oral Cancer | Dentist | Fundraising walk
Widow of mouth cancer victim prepares for fundraising walk to raise awareness of disease
TOOTHACHES are not generally associated with life-threatening diseases.
But for Steve Hollingsworth what started as a simple trip to the dentist was followed by visits to the doctor and after a biopsy a final diagnosis of mouth cancer.
Within 18 months he had died from a disease which kills over half of those diagnosed due to late detection.
His partner of 11 years Audrey Hollingsworth, 54, a financial administrator who lives in Somers Close in Somers Town is taking part in a 10km walk through Hyde Park in September to raise funds for what she considers to be a forgotten cancer along with her late husband’s sister, his three children and grandchildren, nieces, nephews and friends, and her own daughter, Sasha.
Pop star, Natasha Hamilton, and Olympic swimmer, Sharron Davies, will also travel to London on Saturday, 20 September and walk alongside mouth cancer survivors, who will be wearing blue sashes to identify each other.
The aim of the sponsored walk is to encourage people with suspected mouth cancer to see their GP if they notice symptoms such as a sore, ulcer or lump in the mouth or neck, difficulty swallowing, neck swelling or tooth mobility or a chronic sore throat that persists for over six weeks.
Mr Hollingsworth, a former security guard for Islington council who lived in Somers Town all his life and attended Edith Neville Primary School, had been smoking all his adult life.
Sometimes the 52-year old would wake up in the middle of the night to puff on half a roll up.
Mrs Hollingsworth said: “He’d wake up have a couple of drags and then go back to sleep.”
In December 2006 Mr Hollingsworth was diagnosed with mouth cancer.
He underwent an extensive radiotherapy course to shrink the tumour enough to safely have an operation to remove it but in April 2007 doctors informed the family that the disease had become terminal.
Knowing his days were numbered, Mr Hollingsworth spent his final days with his wife in Singapore and Hong Kong and visited his brother’s grave in Australia.
She said: “It took an awful lot of organising but I’m so grateful we did it because he was really well then.”
Mrs Hollingsworth believes that if she or her husband had been aware of what symptoms to look out for, he might have been treated earlier and survived.
“People do survive it,” she said.
“Not everybody dies from it. People should have regular medical check ups.”
Mrs Hollingsworth said: “In the end it was so disfiguring. Most people couldn’t understand Steve when he spoke. The lump on his neck was getting larger and larger and it started to weep. It became a hole and eventually it was just constantly bleeding.”
She added: “The symptoms are well advanced before anyone realises.”
The former heavy goods driver was driving his car a matter of days before he died at University College Hospital in December last year.
“I’d hate anyone to have to go through what we went through,” said Mrs Hollingsworth.
She added: “And obviously we’re still going through it now.”
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