A man has urged people to trust their intuition after an uneasy feeling about his recurring tonsillitis led him to discover a hidden cancerous tumour under his tongue.

Pawel Chmura, 32, a front of house co-ordinator for a marketing agency in London, first investigated his tonsillitis at the end of 2023. 

‘It all started from something entirely different. The year before I was diagnosed with mouth cancer, I was having issues with tonsils,’ he said. 

‘Every time I came back from holiday I was suffering from tonsillitis, and there are only so many times you can take antibiotics before you start asking questions.’

Despite tests and swabs at the GP coming back with nothing, he continued to push for answers, seeing specialists through his Bupa health insurance. 

He was eventually referred to an infectious disease expert at the start of 2024, who told him while his tonsils were ‘fine’ an MRI scan had revealed something suspicious.

Then after initially not being able to get a biopsy because of the location of the tumour, he found a specialist surgeon who removed it and sent it for a biopsy. 

Just two weeks later, despite feeling ‘very, very optimistic as always’, a doctor sat him down and told him it was sadly cancer. 

Pawel Chmura, 32, has told people to trust their intuition after an uneasy feeling about is recurring tonsillitis led him to discover a hidden cancerous tumour under his tongue

After a surgeon removed the tumour, a biopsy revealed it was cancerous, and Mr Chmura said the only thing on his mind was how he would tell his parents

Recalling being told, Mr Chmura said: ‘I was invited to a follow-up appointment two weeks later and me being very, very optimistic as always, I thought it would be fine.

‘But when I walked in saw the doctor and nurse, I felt something was off straight away. 

‘We sat down and they said listen, unfortunately it’s a cancer.’

He described how the main thing on his mind was how he would share the devastating news with his parents.

‘The only thing I focused on was how to tell my parents and how to organise them to fly over here from Poland. 

‘Obviously, you never want to hear over the phone that your only son has cancer. 

‘They were pretty devastated, but I reassured them that that I had the best care possible and that we just needed to hope for the best.’

Throughout his cancer journey his lead consultant was Dr Raf Niziol an oral and maxillofacial surgeon.

Mr Chmura when recalling his time recovering on the ICU described it as a ‘blur’ 

After the major surgery he had to relearn how to use his tongue

While he returned to work three months after the operation, he still fears it coming back

The surgery, which Mr Chmura had at Cromwell Hospital in April 2024 involved removing the floor of the mouth, a neck resection, and a forearm tissue transplant. 

But if this wasn’t enough, he had to endure another procedure known as a tracheostomy to manage post-op swelling. 

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Of this time, he said: ‘It’s a very weird going back to the time I was in ICU [intensive care unit] because I was on so many painkillers that everything feels like a blur. But, at the same time, there are specific moments which I feel like I remember very well.’ 

‘For example, the first night after the surgery, I was having trouble sleeping. As the anaesthesia was wearing off, I had these awful dreams and kept waking myself up.

‘Laying there and hearing the beep, beep, beep in the hospital wasn’t really nice, so I played the radio on the TV, as music is the thing which usually grounds me.’

After the main operation he had to relearn how to use his tongue. ‘My tongue doesn’t feel as flexible as it once was and I can no longer stick it out,’ he said. 

While he returned to work three months after surgery, he said that the fear the cancer returning still lingers.  

‘The type of cancer means that I need to have yearly test scans and in this particular case, there is quite a high chance of reoccurrence in the lungs,’ he said. ‘So, although the thought of that is not the centre of my mind, it’s always there.’

The ordeal, he says, has changed his outlook on life, and now he wants to live it to the fullest 

He flew to Barcelona to see Lady Gaga as part of his new approach to life 

But after the unexpected turbulence of 2024, Mr Chmura said his mindset has dramatically shifted, and he has been on a quest to live life to the fullest. 

‘I’ve named 2025 as the year of making dreams come true,’ he said. ‘I’ve put a lot of effort to enjoy this year, and I think that’s my new life motto, to kind of do whatever I want.’ 

‘I want to try and get as much out of life as I can, because I could possibly have been dead at 30 if the surgery went wrong.

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‘I have travelled a lot, I’ve seen Lady Gaga in Barcelona and ate a lot of nice food. So yeah, it was quite a busy time of year for me.’ 

He wanted to share his story to encourage others to keep pushing for answers if they feel like something is wrong with their health.

‘If there is a worry about anything, just go and have it checked, because if I didn’t push, god knows when we would have found it,’ said Pawel.

Worryingly, mouth cancer is one of the UK’s fastest-growing cancers, with cases up 38 per cent in the past decade, according to an Oral Health Foundation report. 

Symptoms include mouth ulcers, red or white patches in the mouth, loose teeth, difficulty swallowing, hoarse voice, difficulty speaking and swelling or lumps in the mouth/around the jaw.