FOR dad Richard Andrews, life seemed perfect.
Happily married, three children and a fabulous little dog, the 56-year-old had it all.
But after experiencing some ear nose and throat symptoms, Richard was diagnosed with stage two laryngeal cancer, with surgery leaving him unable to speak for months.
In the UK, there are more than 2,000 new cases of laryngeal cancer, also known as throat cancer, each year.
It’s more common in men and those over the age of 60.
In December 2017, Richard started to have some issues with his voice.
Read more on cancer
Initially, he just thought it was down to a ‘savage sore throat and extreme ear ache’.
Richard, who lives in Hereford, said he would sound squeaky or even hoarse towards the end of the day.
“Having suffered from this in 2012, I believed it to be polyps on my vocal chords.
“So I went to see my GP who referred me to Hereford ENT for the lovely scope up the nose”, he wrote on his blog.
His swallowing gradually got worse, until Richard was only eating liquid foods and special shakes.
After undergoing a biopsy, Richard was told he had a malignant tumour on his vocal chord.
He then underwent 30 sessions of radiotherapy, which led to him losing three stone.
The former sales and marketing worker was given the all clear in January 2019, but he soon started to suffer from shortness of breath and ear ache.
The cancer had returned and in July 2019 and Richard had to have surgery to remove his voice box and lymph nodes.
This meant he was left with a hole in his throat.
“My mouth is no longer used for breathing, and my nose doesn’t work at all except for holding my glasses on my face.
