A veteran singer who was struck down by mouth cancer is set to rejoin her ladies' choir - after having her tongue rebuilt with flesh from her arm.
Widowed grandmother Marlene Gaunt feared she might never be able to talk properly or sing in tune again when she was told she had cancer in her mouth.
But surgeons removed one-third of her tongue and reconstructed it with tissue, blood vessels and a section of artery from her left forearm in an operation 11 weeks ago.
Mrs Gaunt is now talking normally and practising her singing scales daily as she prepares to join her 25 colleagues in the Phoenix Singers at Swaffham.
The soprano, in her 60s, said: "My main concern when I found out I had cancer was that I had cancer was that I would lose my voice.
"Just having the ability to speak again is a miracle to me - but what makes it even more remarkable is that I am getting my singing voice back.
"I have started singing scales again and I can already hit Top A. I am confident of reaching even higher notes soon and want to back with the choir by July."
Mrs Gaunt had a mastectomy in 1975 when she was suffering from breast cancer, but no further health problems were picked up in regular check-ups over the following years.
Then just before last Christmas she noticed what she thought was an ulcer on her tongue which she believed has been brought on by a dose of bronchitis.
Her dentist became suspicious of the growth and sent her to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, where a doctor carried out a biopsy and diagnosed cancer.
Mrs Gaunt was then referred to consultant surgeon Leo Cheng who runs the specialist Maxillofacial Unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.
He and his team removed the section to tongue and carried out delicate micro-surgery to connect veins, arteries and tissue from Mrs Gaunt's arm to veins in her neck in a 12-hour operation on January 19.
Mrs Gaunt, who spent two weeks in hospital, said: "I was able to speak in a tiny voice a few days after the operation, but my neck was so swollen that I looked like Humpty Dumpty.
"Then I had regular sessions with a speech therapist who kept getting me to stick out my tongue and do exercises like saying the word "caterpillar".
"By the time I left hospital I could talk fairly well, but I sounded a bit like Marlon Brando in The Godfather as if I had cotton wool stuffed in my mouth.
"Now my speech is improving by the day and I can't wait to sing properly again.
"The tip of my original tongue was left as I can still taste the difference between sweet and bitter things.
"In fact, all my taste buds seem to work properly. Food still tastes just as beautiful as it always did to me.
"I am just so grateful for the skill and expertise of Mr Cheng. He's an absolutely wonderful man and we got on extremely well - partly because we both have a strong Methodist faith.
"When I saw him recently he asked me to speak to one of his patients who was half of my age and a little depressed about facing a similar operation.
"Seeing me helped to reassure her that it was possible to get over it.
"I now hope to be part of a support team which Mr Cheng is setting up to help sufferers."
Mrs Gaunt joined the Phoenix Singers in 1984 and often performed solo. She used to be the secretary of the choir, organising concerts and performing a mixture of classic, traditional and popular songs.
She has now arranged a concert by the Phoenix Singer and the Lynn Male Voice Choir on June 8 at the Roman Catholic Church in Swaffham to raise funds for Mr Cheng's clinic.
Mr Cheng said: "The surgery carried out on Mrs Gaunt involved re-forming her tongue with living tissue and connecting it to the blood supply in the neck.
"It was different to a skin graft which involves moving dead tissue from one part of a body to another.
"The surgery had to be carried out under a microscope using sutures finer than hair to plumb blood vessels together.
"It was a very specialised operation and tailor-made for her.
"She was a great patient and it is wonderful that she is on her way to singing again.
"Reconstructive surgery like this has a high success rate and is up to 95 per cent successful when the cancer is caught early as it was in her case."
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