Our policy as a charity is to stick to tried and true cancer treatment but there are complementary therapies that might provide comfort and enhance health. Here is a personal attempt to clarify the somewhat murky field of alternative and complementary treatments....

  I couldn’t find anything much about skin grafts for oral cancer/head and neck cancer on the internet so I’m writing about my experience to help others. I’ve had two recently.  Double thickness skin grafts they were called. The removal of both the epidermis and the...

    Brian Easton Prologue This arises from an invitation by Head and Neck Cancer Support Aotearoa to set down my recent experiences. A writer always asks, who am I writing for? It would be pointless to write for those who have already had treatment; most...

A New Normal An interesting term I have run into during my cancer journey is the term ‘a new normal’. I have heard many times that things will ‘return to normal’ after MOHS surgery or similar dermatological procedures. A ‘new normal’ was a little different. Things...

Awake intubation via the nose As a repeat cancer patient I've spent 20 years toughening myself up for medical procedures. If you're going to be nervous about needles and other brief but maybe painful assaults on your body, you're going to have a difficult life. So...

Nicky's story This is the beginning of Nicky's story which was published on stuff.co.nz in 2020. Hearing the very sad news that the legendary Eddie Van Halen passed away from throat cancer, I thought it timely to tell my story. In August, 2017 I developed a painful...

Denyse: My Head and Neck Cancer Diagnosis. I now live in a New South Wales area called the Central Coast, an hour north of Sydney. Before we moved here in 2015, I had been instructed my then dentists to “clean more carefully” around the back of the bridge with 5 teeth...

My HNC misdiagnosis January 2017 developed severe hay fever resulting in sore nostrils. A small lump then developed at end of septum and right nostril. Seen by GP and and prescribed antibiotics. Put on 2 further doses of antibiotics during February. Feb 15th taken by...

Patient Story: Liz Gray  In The Beginning I was born and bred in Invercargill, am 61 years of age, never smoked and didn’t drink. I left high school and worked at a solicitor’s as a legal typist, married at 17 years of age and had three beautiful children, a son and...