Shrewsbury mother proud of new voice after rare cancer
- Published
Cancer patient Loren Stokes is lending her voice to a charity campaign
A woman who lost her voice box to a rare cancer says she is proud of her new one and urges others with the condition not to hide away.
Loren Stokes, from Shrewsbury, had her larynx, thyroid, saliva glands and part of her oesophagus removed to treat a tumour that had grown in her neck.
She now uses a voice prosthesis.
The 48-year-old dental nurse has been chosen to launch the fundraising campaign Stand Up To Cancer from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4.
Ms Stokes said had she not had the procedure, she would not be here.
She began treatment after being diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma in 2019.
She said she started to have neck and shoulder pain and then could not swallow properly before feeling a lump in her neck move during a doctor's examination.
She said it was "shocking" to see the size of the tumour that had grown inside her.
"When I went for my operation," she said, "the consultant surgeon said we've got you at the right time because a couple more weeks it probably would have closed your windpipe off."
Throat cancer symptoms could manifest as asthma, chest or ear infections so it was not commonly picked up, she said.
'Feeling positive'
After her operation she said she felt depressed and regretted having the procedure, but began to feel more positive.
At first she said she felt self-conscious about her new voice but she was now proud of it and encouraged others to be as well.
Ms Stokes talks by pressing a valve in her throat to control airflow. She had to learn how to take in a breath, push it to the bottom of her stomach and back out again.
In October 2020, a routine scan showed the cancer had returned in her lungs which currently was inoperable, but she said she remained positive.
"I just think whatever they can do, I'm grateful for and the time they can give me - they don't know how long I've got," she said.
Her 17-year-old son Kieran, who has autism, has been "brilliant", she says, after initially struggling with his mother's change.
She said: "Cancer can affect anyone's life, at any time, so we really have no choice other than to unite against it and help support the scientists to keep making new discoveries."
Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, external, Twitter, external and Instagram, external. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk