A woman says choking on a cup of tea may have saved her dad's life after the coughing fit revealed he had cancer. Connie Hodgkinson said her dad Colin Hodgkinson has had throat issues and had been struggling to swallow since 2025, with doctors unsure what the underlying issue was and prescribing antibiotics.
The issue seemed to have come to a head in December when the 66-year-old dad-of-eight was hospitalised with pneumonia, before returning home. Colin, who was still struggling with throat issues, accepted a cup of tea while visiting Connie on July 5 and started choking on it.
To avoid making a mess and spitting the liquid onto the floor, Colin rushed into the kitchen and suddenly passed out, splitting his head open on a radiator as he crumpled to the floor. Retirement village duty manager Connie rushed into the kitchen to help him, before he eventually came round and was taken to hospital to get his head stitched.
Choking leads to cancer discovery
There, tests revealed he had a form of throat cancer called oropharyngeal carcinoma. Colin's family is unsure how advanced Colin's cancer is but have set up a fundraiser to go on holiday together before he starts treatment.
Connie, from Blacon, Cheshire, said: "I've never ever witnessed anything like that in my life, it was horrible, I just can't even explain it. He's been having problems with his throat and swallowing for well over a year now and he had been going to the doctors.
"They were just giving him antibiotics and cream because he had got ulcers on his tongue, which was affecting his speech and they kept just giving him antibiotics. They were unsure [what is was]. I'd been asking them for about a year to transfer him to the SALT [Speech and Language Therapy] team at the hospital to find out why he's not swallowing properly. He's lost loads of weight as well.
Family's plea for answers
Connie said the 'horrible' incident at the beginning of July finally gave the family answers as to what has been plaguing him. She described how her dad walked to the kitchen and passed out, hitting the radiator and splitting his head open.
Connie said: "With him falling I thought I had lost my dad then. We took him to the hospital to get it stitched. The SALT team got involved while he was in the hospital because they noticed that he was struggling to swallow and he was choking on everything."
"Then they've seen on the scan that there was a lump there so they've done a biopsy and an MRI and he's got a big mass on his neck and one on his throat." Connie has set up a fundraiser to take her dad away to Cornwall when he feels well enough.
NHS response
Connie is urging others to push for answers if they feel there's something wrong with their health. She said: "We've never all had a family holiday together so our aim is to try and get him on this holiday before the chemo absolutely wipes him out."
She added: "It's [the choking incident] is a blessing in disguise, it might have saved his life. I'm quite annoyed at the doctors that they haven't picked up on this sooner because I've been telling them to refer him to the SALT team."
A spokesperson for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside said: "We are sorry to hear about Mr Hodgkinson’s experience and diagnosis. We welcome feedback from our patients, but for reasons of confidentiality, we cannot comment on individual cases. If a patient is unhappy with the care they have received, we would encourage them to raise these concerns directly with their GP practice or by contacting NHS Cheshire and Merseyside’s complaints team."
