Lora, a young mother from Melbourne who was diagnosed with oral cancer and had three quarters of her tongue removed.

In early 2017, Lora Winter noticed a persistent ulcer on her tongue. Initially dismissing it as stress-related, she sought medical advice at her husband’s insistence. What followed was a shocking diagnosis: Stage 4 Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Lora underwent 14-hour surgery, losing two-thirds of her tongue, part of her jaw, and requiring reconstructive procedures using tissue from her arm and thigh. She faced months of radiation, speech therapy, and a long recovery process of learning to communicate, eat, and navigate her new normal.

“I never imagined something as small as an ulcer could change my life forever. Simple things like eating, speaking, and even kissing my kids goodnight became enormous challenges.”

Lora highlights the critical need for accessible, specialist information for patients and caregivers: "It was a light in the dark for me knowing that this small but amazing charity was out there providing information to those who need and want it. Head and Neck Cancer can’t be hidden away, it’s visible and I really appreciate that HANCA sees us, hears us and has created resource access that makes us feel we have been seen and heard. For many of us, before finding HANCA’s website, we weren’t sure we wanted to be seen and heard, we wanted to hide in the shadows so it’s wonderful to have HANCA in our lives."

How HANCA Supported Lora:

At diagnosis / during treatment: Access for Lora and her family to the location of HNC Multidisciplinary teams, easy to search directory about her type of HNC linked to further information on treatment options and oral cancer patient stories.

Survivorship: Access to specialist services e.g. lymphoedema therapist, speech pathologist, soft food recipe books. Connection to patient/carer support groups.