WHEN Steffi Colbert sees herself in the mirror it can still be a shock.

The 50-year-old was the picture of health and happiness – she didn’t smoke, ate healthily and loved her job as a belly dancing teacher. However, things began to change when she first noticed a rough patch in her gum. Her dentist gave her antibiotics, saying it was probably an abscess or the start of gum disease.

It was not. It was head and neck cancer – a disease that would change her life forever.

“My teeth began protruding, I was struggling to eat and finally managed to get my dentist to refer me,” she recalls.

“I was given the diagnosis on my 49th birthday in 2013. I was told I would have to have some fairly horrific surgery. As a woman I think it is very difficult having surgery on your face and coming to terms with what that might mean.

“That was the worst day. I had to go home and tell my kids. I remember waiting for my 13-year-old to come home from school – it was horrendous.

“I was sat on the sofa crying when my mum rang me to wish me happy birthday.”

Treated at Poole Hospital, Steffi underwent surgery to remove the tumour and surgeons took a chunk of bone from her leg and installed it in her mouth.

She was in theatre for over 13 hours, then spent a week dazed in intensive care.

The surgery was successful, but Steffi had still not seen the results. “I was in the bathroom when I first saw myself in a mirror. It was a real shock. It was really frightening seeing that face. It was horrific.

“It took me a long time to come to terms with that.

“Even now sometimes I will be walking along the street and catch sight of myself in a shop window and think: ‘Oh no – that face is horrible.’

“But you have to get on with life and be as positive as you can.”

Cancer free for a year, Steffi is now doing her best to get her life back on track – but the psychological impact, as well as the continuing physical problems, continues to linger.

“It has been utterly exhausting,” she says. “I can’t open my mouth properly any more and my energy is really finite – I have to be very careful.

“But a lot of people are worse off than me and I can’t thank Poole Hospital enough for their help.”

Expert's advice

POOLE Hospital head and neck cancer surgeon Dr Emma King is eager to raise awareness about the killer disease.

“The main things to look out for are any pain or non-healing ulcers in the mouth, lumps in the neck and a persistent hoarse voice,” she says.

“The earlier we detect cancer, the easier it is to cure and the side-effects are significantly less if we catch it early.

“We treat these cancers with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy – either a single modality or we use them in combination.

“Seventy per cent of our patients get the disease due to smoking and drinking, but 30 per cent get it because of the HPV (Human Papilloma Virus). People are a bit reticent to present to clinic because they don’t smoke or drink – but they can still be at risk.”