Medical student is face of appeal after tongue cancer
- Published
Rachel Morton has continued with her medical studies despite months of gruelling treatment
A medical student who had much of her tongue removed when she was treated for a rare cancer has become the face of a charity's fundraising appeal.
Rachel Morton, 22, noticed painful mouth ulcers in 2019 and was diagnosed with tongue cancer a year later.
With her cancer now in remission, Rachel, originally from Law in South Lanarkshire, is lending her support to the organisation that helped her.
Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT) runs the Edinburgh unit where she was treated.
It is one of four specialist bases in hospital in Scotland, where about 200 young people aged between 13 and 24 are diagnosed with cancer every year.
Rachel had advanced oral squamous cell carcinoma, a type of tongue cancer.
"I'd had non-resolving tongue ulcers for about a year," the University of Edinburgh medical student told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme.
"Having gone back to the GP again and again, I wasn't your typical patient. Usually people with tongue cancer are older men who have been smoking and drinking all their life - so it took me quite a while.
"When I started getting really tired and other symptoms, that was when my new GP sent me for a biopsy and within a week I was diagnosed with tongue cancer."
She said she "went into survival mode" and had to "live everyday how it comes".
In a 16-hour surgical procedure Rachel had two-thirds of her tongue removed, but as the cancer had also spread into her jaw and lymph nodes parts of those had to be cut out too.
Surgeons then used muscle and blood vessels from her legs to reconstruct her tongue and the arteries and veins in her neck.
Rachel had her tongue reconstructed using muscles from her leg
After the operation Rachel was left unable to speak or walk and had to undergo months of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
She was admitted to the Teenage Cancer Trust unit at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, which specialises caring for those aged 16 to 24.
The unit has four in-patient beds, and bedrooms come with comfortable furnishings, TV and gaming consoles, which Rachel described as "absolutely amazing".
As Rachel's time on the unit was during the Covid pandemic she was not allowed visitors or to mingle with other patients. She came to rely on the support of TCT staff - nurse Fiona and youth support worker Nicola.
'I want to give back as much as I can'
"It feels like they're not even there for a job, it feels like they want to be there and want to support you," she said.
"Getting through all I went through without Fiona and Nicola would have been near impossible.
"Fiona is so kind and so caring. She was there for my family too, especially when they couldn't visit and needed updates on how I was doing and someone to answer their questions."
She added: "Because I couldn't leave my room [Nicola] would sit and talk to me for hours, and it never felt like she was being paid to be there. Without her I would have been incredibly lonely."
Teenage Cancer Trust also has units at the Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children, Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre and Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Children, each staffed by specially trained nurses and youth support teams, supported by about £800,000 in donations each year.
Rachel is now the face of their new appeal, alongside advising the charity while she continues with her studies.
"I feel I want to give back to them as much as I can," she said. "People donating to the charity is the only way they can continue the work that they do."
Now in her fifth year at medical school, Rachel has completed placements at the same departments where she was treated.
"It's very strange but it's nice to be able to have the perspective of both the patient and the doctor, and I feel like that will help towards how I approach patients in the future," she said.
"It's an added level of compassion and empathy you can bring to the job."
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