Woman With Cancer Diagnosis Gets Part of Her Tongue Removed & Remade From Thigh Muscle - Report

The woman initially experienced early signs of cancer in 2018, as she started to get recurring ulcers and was feeling "run down." However, she kept ignoring the signs, thinking it was occurring because of her long shifts working as a flight attendant.

27-year-old flight attendant Charlotte Wester-Salter underwent a 9.5-hour operation to cut away a part of her tongue that was infected with cancer cells and replace it with thigh muscle, The Independent reported.

"The ulcers always appeared in one area - which I thought was odd. I kept dismissing it, in my mind I thought it was just stress or feeling run down. I even thought it was from being hungover or eating spicy food was aggravating it. I had my teeth straightened and had fillings, but nothing helped," Salter told media.

Woman in England Gets Part of Her Tongue Removed, Remade from Thigh Muscle After Cancer Diagnosis

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After more than a year of having frequent ulcers in her mouth, Salter visited a dentist and general practitioner in 2020, who told Salter that they were being caused due to her wisdom teeth.

But after her tongue developed sore white patches, she was finally referred to a specialist at St. Richards Hospital in February 2021, who discovered a tumor called a squamous cell carcinoma growing in her tongue and classified it as a type of head and neck cancer.

Describing her new tongue as a "drumstick lolly," Salter said it took 10 days to say the first words after her surgery.

To learn how to talk and eat with her new tongue, the 27-year-old is undergoing speech and physiotherapy.