A mum's leg has been used to reconstruct her tongue - after she was diagnosed with mouth cancer.

Candi Hulley, 52, said a chance check-up at her dentist had led to her heartbreaking diagnosis.

The mum-of-three who never smoked and drank said it was a 'shock' when she found she would have to remove part of her tongue.

Veins and an artery from her left leg were used to reconstruct nearly half of her tongue.

She spent over 12 hours in hospital to remove the tumour from her mouth - to ensure she could eat, speak and swallow again.

Candi, from Bude, Cornwall had to learn how to speak and eat again during her recovery for mouth cancer.

She is now urging people to check for the warning signs.

Candi, a social prescriber, said: "The dentist saw that I had something at the back of my tongue - it was a white spot."

"I was quite glad they had been observing it for 18 months and making sure that hadn't changed or when it had changed they knew straight away what it was so it was caught quite early."

"They took a big part of my tongue out and they used a piece of skin and veins and an artery from my leg to make the flap - otherwise I wouldn't have been able to swallow."

Candi was diagnosed in December 2023 and got into surgery in February last year.

She had to spend one month in Exeter Hospital after the operation to remove her mouth cancer.

She said she was quite happy doctors chose to get the skin off her leg rather than other parts like the wrists, as she says takes longer to heal.

"I've got quite a long scar but it only took a few weeks to heal," Candi added."

"It goes from the vein all the way up to the artery."

"My children say that it looks like a shark bite."

After coming out of hospital in March 2024 she had to have speech therapy for six months.

During the process, Candi also had to quit eating hard foods and have a diet based on liquids and soups.

Candi said: "It wasn't easy because there are things I'd like to eat that are difficult like apples - you can't chew an apple."

"A piece of bread is quite hard because you find that you actually move it around quite a lot and that was quite hard to do."

Only since November last year Candi has been able to eat properly and get back to work.

She said: "Eating is never going to be the same for me and you are always worrying about something coming back."

"I didn't know that I should be looking at my tongue or sticking my tongue right out my mouth to properly look at what's going on."

"I didn't even know that I had anything there. "

"If you have anything you need to book a test straight away. Obviously it depends if the dentist is trained, which mine luckily was."

After overcoming mouth cancer, Candi has now been diagnosed with breast cancer and has been undergoing therapy.

She said: "Unfortunately I have been diagnosed with breast cancer now which is totally unrelated to the mouth."

"I have been going through chemotherapy. But I think I am doing ok."

The Mouth Cancer Foundation charity said more than 3,600 people died of mouth cancer last year nationally – a 20 per cent rise over the past five years.

New cases of mouth cancer in the UK reached 10,825 last year - an increase of 38 per cent in the last decade and by 133 per cent compared with 20 years ago.

More than two-in-three (68 per cent) mouth cancers in the UK are diagnosed in men.