Queen Mary student had jaw removed after a pimple turned out to be an ‘aggressive’ tumour

A student from Queen Mary, University of London had some of her jaw removed after a suspected pimple turned out to be an “rare and aggressive tumour”. 

Maham, 19, who is studying biomedical sciences was the subject of a BBC documentary, Saving Lives in Cardiff which showed her battle with a tumour in her jaw.

She discovered the growth after she felt a lump which she assumed was a pimple near her chin: “I just remember sitting on my sofa just about to watch TV and I felt a pimple on the outer skin and I got to feel something underneath it as well as on my jaw, it was a very tiny little bump. I went to my nearest dentist and they said it was a cyst.”

She was then referred to a maxillofacial consultant at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff who then told her she had a tumour inside her jaw bone.

Mr Cellan Thomas, Maham’s surgeon described it as “a rare and aggressive tumour” and one “that progressively eats away at her lower jaw which would eventually end up in her jaw being broken.”

When Maham had surgery, in order to extract the tumour, she had to have the right side of her jaw, chin and ten of her teeth removed and replaced with bone from her left leg.

Maham told the BBC that she was also worried about how she would look after losing her teeth, saying: “It’s kind of turned my world upside down, to be honest.”

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Talking about her wellbeing after the surgery, Mr Thomas said: “I want her to be able to walk down that street and feel confident. I could be happy, but that doesn’t really matter. She needs to be happy.”

A successful surgery managed to remove the tumour and repair her jaw using blood vessels from her left leg and bones from her fibula. It was also discovered that the tumour was benign and all of it was successfully removed. 

Following the surgery, Maham said: “My procedure is very visible, you can see the scar but I’ll be honest, for me, the main thing is that I had a tumour here which in the future would have been a much bigger challenge.

“So, having the tumour removed was the main thing.”

After finding out she had a tumour, she decided to take a year away from her studies, but when asked about what’s next for her, she said she wants to go back to university to continue her degree and live life as normally as possible. 

Feature Image Credit: BBC

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