"How my niggling 'mouth ulcer' turned out to be stage four skin cancer"

"How my niggling 'mouth ulcer' turned out to be stage four skin cancer" She underwent a very complicated 15-hour long operation to remove a tumour from her tongue and replace it with a flap of skin from her arm View 5 Images Jennifer O'Hanlon's niggling mouth ulcer turned out to be stage four skin cancer A Co Armagh woman has opened up about how what she thought was a niggling mouth ulcer turned out to be stage four skin cancer. Back in November of 2024 Jennifer O'Hanlon, a 44-year-old nurse from Killeavy, had been suffering with what she believed was an ulcer on the back of her tongue rubbing on her back teeth that just wouldn't go away. She told Belfast Live: "There was no pain with it at the start and then it started to get really painful to the point that I wasn't really eating or drinking. I had a dentist appointment and I asked him to have a look at it. He said he'd never seen anything like it before and didn't know what it was. NI comedian describes the impact of grueling cancer treatment after 16 cm tumour is found in his chest READ MORE : "He didn't think it was anything suspicious because it wasn't painful but I was referred to Oral Medicine in Craigavon anyway. I had already been on Google which I shouldn't have done, but it ended up I was right. "When I went to them a month later, they took one look at it and said, 'oh we need to biopsy this'. I said, 'Do you think it's cancer?' They just said straight away, 'Yes, we do'. In between times I had scans, an MRI and a CT and then went back for the results and it was a tumour." Jennifer was referred a consultant at the Ulster Hospital only to be told that her cancer was stage four, squamous cell carcinoma. She was told she would need surgery, radiotherapy and possibly chemotherapy to tackle the growth and diseased cells. "I knew it was cancer, obviously, but I never expected it to be that bad and what came afterwards was just horrendous. When I asked, 'What if I don't have surgery?' I was told, 'You'll have a year to live,' so I didn't really have a choice when it was that black and white," Jennifer added. The partial glossectomy surgery itself was scheduled for what would have been her second wedding anniversary but then a cancellation came up. "It was a very complicated surgery - 15 hours long - to remove the tumour from my tongue and then take a flap of skin from my arm, along with all the blood vessels that go to it, to replace a part of the tongue. I had sort of said my goodbyes beforehand because I was convinced I wasn't coming round from it," Jennifer explained. View 5 Images Jennifer underwent a very complicated 15 hour long operation to remove the tumour from her tongue and replace it with a flap of skin from her arm "There were two surgeons: one to remove the tumour and another to do the plastics. Because my tumour was so far back and had spread to the lymph nodes as well they had to crack open my whole jaw and remove 39 lymph nodes," said Jennifer. When she woke up after the surgery in recovery, she had a tracheostomy and drains coming from her neck where they had done the neck dissection, along with a catheter and feeding tube. "The next day I was taken up to the ward and my husband, Raymond, was there. I had to communicate on a whiteboard and the first thing I wrote to him was, 'Why did I do this?' They did warn me that 'on day two or three you're going to feel like you're going to die, that you want to die'. They were right but nothing prepares you for that and you don't realise how true it is until it actually happens to you. "It was horrendous just being suctioned all the time because you're constantly choking on secretions. It was very warm too and I was taking panic attacks every evening." Despite her ordeal, Jennifer surprised the medical team with her rapid recovery. She had her feeding tube and tracheostomy removed on day 9 and was allowed home two days later. After that she underwent a gruelling 35 rounds of radiotherapy and five rounds of chemotherapy. 'During radiotherapy your mouth just fills with ulcers. You can't eat or drink or swallow. It's nearly impossible so I had to have the feeding tube re-inserted," she added. View 5 Images Jennifer underwent a very complicated 15 hour long operation to remove the tumour from her tongue and replace it with a flap of skin from her arm Then much to the horror of her husband, Raymond, she had to receive a syringe driver to help control her pain and sickness. "Of course my husband panicked as the only syringe driver he heard of was when his father was dying but at least I knew it was for symptom control. All the while I was going to dieticians and speech and language therapists and physios. I ended up losing four stone but eventually everything was removed, and I started to get back to normal and eating again. "I was having a lot of choking episodes in my sleep, which was leading to chest infections. All the chemotherapy put me into early menopause while the radiotherapy gave me an underactive thyroid gland ‌ "Mentally I never actually processed what was going on with me because you just had to motor on as every single day something was happening so you didn't have time to stop and think about what am I actually going through here? It took months after the treatment finished for me to realise what was going on when I went to counselling. "I've just finished with a psychologist who is trying to use cognitive behavioural therapy with me to deal with the anxiety of normal life, going back to work and similar things. It's like something's been taken away from me. I can't eat the way I used to be able to, I can't speak the way I used to and even something as simple as yawning, my whole face cramps. "I have scars all around my neck and mouth and obviously there's a massive scar on my arm. Scars don't bother me, they're my war wounds that I survived." ‌ View 5 Images Jennifer and husband Raymond as she rings the bell after completing her cancer treatment Earlier this year, Jennifer underwent a CT scan which came back with no evidence of disease: "While everybody was delighted, I found it very hard to process if it was true. Today, the fatigue and brain fog that I have is unbelievable. I could sleep around the clock but I can't actually sleep. I'm up half the night downstairs pottering about and then try to go back to bed and maybe sleep for another hour and then I'm up again." Back in May 2025 and just after her diagnosis, Jennifer bravely started to document her experience via TikTok. Her account – Jen's Journey | SCC – has grown to boast over 3,000 followers. ‌ She added: "I didn't even know how to use TikTok before. It was the May Bank Holiday last year and I had been diagnosed in April. I was out for a walk and decided just to video myself. I came home and showed it to Raymond, who said I should post an awareness video on TikTok and the response I got was just unbelievable from complete strangers. View 5 Images Jennifer says her husband Raymond was a tower of strength throughout "I had people contacting me and wanting to send me stuff and people I knew coming to the door with prayers and mass cards and all this kind of thing. Then I had other people with symptoms similar to my own or who had something in and around the mouth and neck area and didn't know what it was who were afraid to go to the dentist or doctor in case they sounded stupid. ‌ "All I wanted to do was raise awareness and I didn't realise how much it would actually help me too along the way. The love and support from people has just been phenomenal, but it's also to raise awareness for people to look out for signs and symptoms. "It's not a type of cancer that has been spoken about too often. You never really hear about it so look out for anything abnormal in your mouth, any persistent sores etc. Even if they're not painful get them checked, no matter how small or big, and if they're not going away after two to three weeks because I left it far too long. "Also any lumps or thickening around the mouth area, discoloured patches or pain. I had severe pain like a neurological pain going into the ear and down around the neck area, and that's one major sign of oral cancer along with any swallowing difficulties or speech problems." You can follow Jennifer's journey via TikTok here. For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter.