A Yorkshire mum says surgeons were forced to remove around 80 per cent of her nose after she received a rare cancer diagnosis. Mel Frisby, 39, first noticed she was having strange nose bleeds while on holiday in Turkey in September 2022.
When she returned home, a small pimple had appeared on the top left corner of her nose which felt like "bone". Her husband urged her to get it checked when she noticed her nose was starting to change shape.
Diagnosis and surgery
She was referred to ENT at Leeds General Infirmary and nine days later she was told she had osteomyelitis – an infection of the bone marrow.
She required surgery to drain the infection, but found that her nose continued to swell in size. When she returned to A&E, a CT scan revealed a "soft tissue" mass and three weeks later Mel was diagnosed with high-stage sinonasal squamous cell carcinoma – a rare and aggressive type of cancer that develops in the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses.
Reflecting on the diagnosis, Mel, a stay-at-home mum and content creator, from Leeds, said: "They took the biopsy, and in Leeds General Infirmary there’s a blue slope and I walked down that and sort of midway through the slope it dawned on me. I remember saying out loud, ‘there’s cancer in the middle of my face.'"
Reconstruction and radiotherapy
In November 2022, Mel underwent surgery to remove around 80 per cent of her nose, before undergoing a further reconstructive surgery a week later. Surgeons used cartilage from Mel’s rib, and skin from her forehead to reconstruct her nose, in what is called a forehead flap procedure.
Mel continued: "I woke up from the surgery to repair my nose and my face was so swollen I couldn’t speak or open my eyes. It was a suffocating experience and I looked like a monster.
"I was a 35-year-old woman, and I’d like to think I was quite pretty. I was a woman and they took my identity, and the feeling of terror that they could take my face and I’d still die or it would come back – it was hard."
Mel also underwent 30 rounds of radiotherapy over six weeks, in which her nose collapsed due to the radiation. Three years on she is cancer free, but she has been told by the hospital that there is "nothing more than can be done" to fix her nose.
Living with the aftermath
She said: "My nose collapsed as the radiation damaged my bone grafts. I’ve been told there is nothing more that can be done for my face by my hospital.
"When I tell my story I feel a responsibility to tell it honestly but not to the point it terrifies anybody to get checked. I am living proof of it – I survived.
"I don’t want it to all be about the nightmare. You are never going to meet anyone more grateful for their life than me."
The mum now has follow-up checks every three months through a camera up her nose and two years ago she was fitted with her first prosthetic nose. This was tailored to her and she described the difference as "amazing".
She added: "I’m still here and I’m raising my family and all of a sudden building a career. I get to raise awareness for head and neck cancers, in general I find there’s just none.
"I think if people don’t know certain cancers exist how many people are going to get them looked at in good time."
Currently Mel is undergoing consultations that may potentially lead to her nose being amputated to improve her "quality of life", but she says remains "hopeful" there are other options and it can be saved.
