Jay Aston’s new tongue is made out of a "chunk of her thigh."
The Bucks Fizz singer underwent a seven-hour operation two months ago after it was discovered that she had mouth cancer and, although she’s been left with "a bit of a lisp" and the recovery was "pretty grim", she’s so amazed that the surgeons managed to rebuild her tongue and insert it through a hole in her neck.
Speaking on Britain’s ‘Lorraine’ on Monday (03.09.18), she said: "I’m doing really well. I’ve got a bit of a lisp. Hopefully in three or four months and with the physiotherapy that I’m about the start it’ll get back to normal.
"They’ve got everything. And they’ve rebuilt my tongue. They’ve taken a chunk of my thigh off and they’ve gone in my neck and took my lymph glands out and they inserted my new tongue through my neck."
The 57-year-old star didn’t want her 15-year-old daughter Josie to see her when she came out of surgery because she was all "swollen up."
She explained: "I looked like I was going to a Halloween party. I didn’t want my daughter to see me for a while. It’s incredible what they can do. The surgeons have been amazing … I was very swollen up. I had the tracheotomy. It was pretty grim. I had that in for a week. I was very swollen up. I couldn’t talk for the first week. I just had to write everything on the board."
When she first found out she had mouth cancer, all she could think about was getting better so that she didn’t miss out on watching her daughter get married.
She said: "She’s 15, she’s my world. I want to be here to see her grow up and get married and maybe have grandchildren. It really does [keep you going]. She’s been great and my husband has been amazing too, really helpful."
Jay has revealed it was actually her dentist who spotted the abnormalities on her tongue a few years ago and she feels so "lucky" it was caught in time.
She explained: "It was actually my dentist. I went for a regular check up, I had a little white patch on my tongue – this was a few years ago – I had a biopsy then and it was fine. I’ve been having regular checks. Then around Christmas time it started to change and it spread right across front to back.
"They thought they’d caught it in the early stage. Unfortunately, it was all dotted front to back, which is why they had to do this bigger operation. I wouldn’t be here [if it wasn’t for those checks]. I’m very lucky – I’m not going to moan."
Jay Aston’s new tongue is made from thigh
