Yet another person dies with head and neck cancer, yet no one says just how painful it is for people living with this condition.
I saw on television that the ARTful Dodger wife said, he always drank and smoked, I wish that someone would get the message out that you do not have to be a smoker or a drinker to have head and neck cancers. Comments Please.

Hi Garance. We all know that anyone in mid life could fall prey to Head and Neck cancers like all of us on this messageboard. Undoubtedly, there is an increased risk for those who do smoke and drink to excess but for those who rarely particpated in these habits there are many unanswered questions.
Then comes the fear of the food we eat and the the chemical additives within, the enviroment and the air we breathe, industrial polution, tap water and its hormone levels etc etc etc.
For all these reasons life can be something of a lottery which means that certain people may just be prone to certain diseases and conditons that others will never experience. Then again.....it could be in our Genes.
But....many Cancers in this day and age are on the increase per head of population and can quite literally be termed as lifestyle cancers.....Oral and mouth cancers included unfortunately, because dietary habits coupled with drug abuse, binge drinking and heavy smoking are all medically linked with this from of cancer.
At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself wether or not Jack Lester would have suffered from his Throat Cancer quite so severely, or even suffered from it at all had he not been an extremely heavy drinker and smoker.

Hi Steve, I just for the record, I have never eaten junk food, never smoked or frequented smoky place, only have only drunk excellent wine with food, as living in France for most of my life, binge drinking is not the way of life, I have never taken drugs; eat loads of fresh vegetables.
My ENT man said, it is like driving down a motor way, you the good driver, get involved in a crash and the bad driver gets away scot free !

Hope you are O>K./ BIG BEAR HEALING HUGS

I am sick and tired of being judged, yes I smoke have drunk in moderation, have worked with dangerous chemicals, have eaten all sorts of food and I have cancer.
It doesn't make me feel very good that almost everyone I meet is sitting in judgement saying 'we told you so'!
Statistically 1 in 3 people will now get cancer so I hope all the judges out there will rethink their little lecture that they dish out to me too often for comfort.
Probably their excuse will be that they sat next to me!!!
I'm feeling mad today!!

Well....regardless of the differing reasons as to why we get Cancer, I used to be a smoker, and statistically smokers are more at risk of any form of Cancer than non-smokers. For this reason I gave up....on the advice of my consultant who i'm sure is well voiced on the statistical risks of smokers and the chances of Cancer returning within patients who continue to smoke. I believe that I made an error of "Judgement" in thinking that I could smoke and drink quite freely for 30 years without once giving any thought to the risk of my Health. That won't happen again.

Hey Sue,
I am sure I sat next to you once, you know!!!!
Funniest thing is - we are all walking about with our plastic bottles of water and now there is a report that a dangerous PCP plastic chemical could be leaching into the water depending on how long the water has been bottled so maybe now is the time to insert head betwen legs and blow ones brains out - all together now!

Nonsmoker here. Got mouth cancer anyway. Do have drinking history, but sober 13 years at time of diagnosis.

Not sure what anyone is supposed to do with that information anyway. It doesn't prove anything. My doc said my chance of re-occurrence is lower since I don't smoke or drink. I take him at his word, but what you do is your own business.

I refuse to get all worked up about plastics or chemicals, or the value of herbs and wheat grass and the like. Not worth it, to me. Everybody gets to deal with things their own way.

Picking up on thread about, "hey, what about what survivors go through" its seems odd that you never hear about other people with our eating/swallowing problems. Restaurants don't seem to feel the need to accommodate us. Is the condition really so rare?

Eating out can be a chore Ron as you have no doubt experienced. Firstly, we try to find places where we can smother our food in sauce or gravy of a non spicy nature which makes eating out at Indian Restaraunts a tricky one. Pizza places aren't a good choice as the food is generally all bread based and can be pretty chewy for a dry mouth, and we pretty much have to study the menu in any place for something that we know we can tolerate and are able to swallow without gagging on it. We are also a small enough minority not to warrant any particular changes really. As per usual....wherever I go I ask for a jug of gravy/sauce and a jug of water and hope I don't choke!

Heathrow,

It is such a relief to hear about someone going through the same thing I go through, as I really feel like I'm the only one.

And I feel like I'm speaking ordinary English when I say things like "may I have some extra butter" or gravy, or au jus. Or "is this dish spicy at all" or "is this fish very moist".

Hey Sue Platt, I only mentioned I was a none smoker, inact I was always a pain in the arse re friends who smoked.

I think the message is as far as I am concerned,
You don't have to be a smoker or heavy spirits drinker to get throat cancer.

My Father used to suck petrol up from tube during the war, smoked, yet he never got c throat cancer.

The only reason I can came account for mine is that I suffered constant sore throats, head aches and ear aches, mainly on the right side of my head, so I must have been very fragile, so cancer is like a tiger awaiting a weak part of the body to declare itself and wam, you present a huge tumour.

The last thing I wanted to do is upset any one,