When Peter Lisle noticed a blemish on his face, he brushed it off as a simple cold sore. But what the mark started to eat away at the rest of his face, he became extremely concerned.
He rushed to the doctor’s office and was horrified to learn what the “cold sore” really was. But that was only the beginning of his troubles.
Back in 2013, Lisle noticed the cold sore. But just to be safe, he went to his doctor to have it checked out.
The physician ordered him to have a biopsy done. When doctors told him it was a rare form of aggressive cancer known as squamous cell carcinoma, Lisle’s world fell apart.
Squamous cell carcinoma is an uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells arising in the squamous cells, which compose most of the skin’s upper layers (the epidermis), Mail Online reports.
Fortunately, if caught soon enough, the cancer is treatable. And Lisle had a chance to live. But in order to survive, he needed his bottom lip and part of his mouth removed. After the surgery, he was told he was in the clear.
But then the unthinkable happened.
At the start of 2015, Lisle noticed an odd bump in his mouth. Doctors said it wasn’t cancerous and he could ignore it.
But after he had his wisdom teeth removed in April, he saw the growth was getting bigger…
“I went to the doctors to make sure it was not what I thought it was,” he’d later explain. “But it was. The cancer had come back again.”
He was rushed to the hospital where he once again had part of his lip.
“The second 20-hour operation removed his lower jaw, then cut a piece of his forehead off and joined it to his bottom lip.
“Following the surgery, his mouth was left with only a small hole around the same diameter as a pencil, and so he had to undergo another operation to make it wider so he could talk and eat.
“Then, in the final procedure, doctors cut bone out of his leg and stuck it back in with screws into his lower jaw to replace the part that had had to be cut out.
“I can’t wait to get past these next operations. I want to get back to work so I don’t lose my house and car,” he said. “I’m trying to keep positive now and hoping for a good future.”
The family has launched a YouCaring page to help afford the expensive medical treatments.
