In the summer of 2020, Mark Loveys was enjoying a peaceful evening with his wife. As he got up from the sofa, he casually rubbed the side of his neck and felt a lump under his right ear. It was about the size of a walnut, but Mark had been experiencing a bit of toothache at the time and put it down to that.

However, a week or two later, the lump hadn’t reduced or gone away so he made an appointment with his GP to get it checked. Mark was referred to a local specialist and then quickly on to the ENT department at Poole Hospital, who arranged for a biopsy to be taken.

The results revealed it was a squamous cell carcinoma in the lymph node, a type of neck cancer.

Cancer is such a loaded word, if I had to mention it, I just called it ‘my tumour’.

Mark Loveys,

“It was a shock,” Mark said. “I could barely bring myself to utter the word to begin with. Your mind starts racing and it is a worrying time.? But I was very reassured by the medical team. I was told it was very treatable, curable and that I shouldn’t panic.

“Naturally I had to tell my grown-up children, which was difficult.? Due to Covid restrictions at the time, I couldn’t meet with them face to face since they both live a way away from home, however this helped me to plan how to break the news. My son works in a hospital lab so, I thought, would take it more in hi