Peter Young, 67, was excited to see himself on TV when he was interviewed by his local BBC news station.
But little did he know that conversation would change his life.
Peter, from Blackpool, is a professional tribute artist to the late American rock star Meat Loaf.
For the past 20 years, he’s made a living dressing up and singing the singer’s hits, including “I’d Do Anything for Love.”
So when Meat Loaf (real name Michael Lee Aday) died in January 2021, BBC Look North got in touch with Peter to ask for his reaction.
“It was an honour to be invited,” Peter said, “and the interview was done over Zoom, but nothing else.”
“But later that day, when I saw myself on TV, I realised I had a large gap in my bottom row of teeth that I hadn’t noticed before.”
Peter Young is performing as a Meat Loaf tribute act and is set to perform his first live shows since his diagnosis next year.
Peter’s first thought was not about his health, but his career: “I was very conscious that if I could notice the gap, the audience could notice it when I played.”
“However, I was going on holiday to Cyprus and didn’t have time to go to a dentist in the UK. Instead, I went to a dentist whilst I was in Cyprus and asked if I could fill the hole with an implant.
“She encouraged me to wait until I could see my dentist at home, and I’m so glad I did.”
Within a week of returning from holiday, Peter went to the dentist, who was immediately uneasy with what he saw.
It wasn’t the gap in his tooth that worried her, but the state of Peter’s gums.
“For a while, I had a bit of loose skin around my top teeth,” Peter says. “It was a bit sensitive, but it wasn’t painful, so I didn’t think much of it.”
“But when the dentist saw this he immediately went to his colleague for a second opinion.
“We both agreed that oral cancer was a possibility.”
Around 9,000 people are diagnosed with oral cancer each year in the UK. The disease usually develops in the tonsils, palate or tongue.
Cases have risen by more than a third in the past decade. Research has shown that this is partly because many Britons struggle to access an NHS dentist. Research shows that just 40% of people have seen a health service dentist in the past two years. A quarter have tried to see one but were not able to.
A dentist became concerned about the state of his gums and he was referred to hospital, where he was subsequently diagnosed with oral cancer and underwent surgery.
Experts say this means the nation’s dental health is worse than it was a decade ago, putting people at higher risk of infections and inflammation that can lead to cancer.
Worryingly, deaths from oral cancer have risen by 46% in the past decade to more than 3,000, partly due to a lack of regular check-ups and early symptoms of the disease going unnoticed.
The same was true with Peter.
After visiting the dentist, Peter was referred to Blackpool Victoria Hospital where a biopsy was taken and doctors officially diagnosed him with stage four oral cancer, the most advanced stage.
The cancer was in the roof of his mouth and was causing gum problems.
For Peter, the news came as a shock.
“I never thought about oral cancer,” he says. “No one in my family had had the disease, so I didn’t think it was something to worry about.”
“I asked the doctor if they could have caught it early and he simply said ‘No.'”
“I told him I made a living from singing and he said I’d never be able to do that again. I was devastated and just broke down in tears.”
Peter was quickly rushed to the operating room, where he underwent nearly 12 hours of surgery to remove the cancer.
The singer noticed a gap in her tooth while watching her own video.
Surgeons then had to painstakingly reconstruct his mouth using skin from his wrist and nerves from his arm.
Fortunately, the surgery was a success, and after a few months of rehabilitation, Peter decided his voice had recovered enough to return to the stage.
Peter and his band will take to the stage at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens in May next year, performing together for the first time since his diagnosis.
“My voice is the best it’s ever been,” Peter says, “but I’ve just lost about four and a half or five stone.”
Peter has no doubt that appearing on TV saved him.
“Without the memorial interview on January 20th, I would never have been aware of the problems with my teeth which led to the shocking diagnosis.”
“Apart from a dull pain and some skin folds on my gums, I didn’t have any major symptoms and didn’t feel unwell. It wasn’t until I saw myself singing that I realised something was wrong.”
Oral cancer is often hard to detect at first, experts say
“In most cases, cancer is not painful so patients are unaware there is a problem,” says Professor Michaelina McCluskey, a head and neck cancer expert at the University of Dundee’s School of Dentistry.
“And because it can progress to areas that are hard to see, it’s often difficult for patients to fully examine their own mouths.”
For this reason, Prof McCluskey advises to look out for things like ulcers that last more than three weeks, white or red spots on the gums or in the mouth, lumps in the mouth that don’t get smaller and aren’t painful, loose teeth, or changes in sensation in the gums.
Other signs to look out for include difficulty swallowing, unexplained bleeding, a lump in the neck, unexplained weight loss, changes in voice quality, and limited jaw movement.
Peter says he now encourages everyone he knows to get an oral exam.
“I didn’t go to the dentist much when I was younger, and now I regret it,” he says.
“I only went when I had a problem, like a toothache.”
