In October 2017 I heard the words everyone doesn't want to hear. "It is cancer it is malignant, it's quite advanced, it's taking up most of you tongue.

Tongue cancer along with a great many of the head and neck cancers is relatively unknown to many. And seen by many including many in the medical world as "An elderly man's illness" frustratingly this leads to very little amount of advice and even fewer support groups geared heavily towards people around 70 years old and up which means it's geared to a different stage of life to those like myself and younger.

I found that even other cancer patients if they didn't have tongue or a head and neck cancer struggled to empathize with what I was struggling and nurses and doctors were brilliant but they too were lacking in a common ground understanding that was needed.

I was fortunate to find a couple younger people who had gone through what I was and their advice helped me immensely. The feeling sharing with those who just understand was so helpful and did counter the lack of mental health support and aftercare. I also was able to support some unfortunate newly diagnosed patients I felt out of my depth and still do but apparently I do help people.

After several years around the same time world turned upside down with lockdowns etc I was told to check out a new message group on Instagram it was being hosted by "a lovely lady who's only just come through treatment" I connected with the group and this was what had been lacking people just got what each other was meaning and sharing in the humor you get after being traumatized and understanding what each was struggling with. Soon there was a zoom call and seeing everyone just knowing and nodding before someone got more than two words out because we just knew was so heartwarming.

That lady was Barbara and that little group that rapidly out grew Instagram and WhatsApp messaging at the time and evolved into the now Young Tongues Global with hundreds of members all tongue cancer survivors all "young" whilst we have been through hell and we are struggling with the aftermath of treatment some after effects are life long and some wait to show up years after treatment. It falls on us to provide the needed aftercare to ourselves and others, unfortunately this group is set to grow as not only has cancer increased overall but it's hitting younger people hardest, the biggest increases for tongue cancer are in younger patients, female patients it used to be for every female patient there would be five male patients it's now something close to one female patient to every three male patients and the gap is closing. And it's increasing in patients who don't hit any of the current known risk factors smoking, drinking, bad oral health, hpv etc.

I'm raising money for the Young Tongues Fund because it allows us to be the aftercare we need. It allows people to not feel alone even surrounded by family and friends this cancer can and does isolate us and we need that understanding from someone who's been through it to feel validated and not alone. Also hopefully to help towards some research into this type of cancer as at present there's very little to no research been done into better treatments for this and there's pretty much no aftercare.

So long story short I'm dragging my butt up Snowdon it's probably going to kill me but I'll have the support of fellow young tongues.