Mother-of-two has 'bike chain' implanted into jaw after bone was ravaged by cancer

Liese Healing, 49, was diagnosed with cancer of the jaw in July last year

A cancer patient has had her jaw put back together with a bike chain-like implant after the bone was eaten away by a tumour.

Liese Healing, 49, a mother-of-two from Rugby, Warwickshire, lost half her jaw to the disease after being diagnosed last July.

She was diagnosed with cancer of the jaw after her teeth started to fall out and she suffered from jaw pain.

Ms Healing, who also beat ovarian cancer in 2005, had to undergo a 12-hour operation to repair her jaw at University Hospital in Coventry.

A titanium metal less likely to be rejected by the body was used for the ‘chain’ which is attached to her bone using screws.

Following the surgery, Ms Healing spent a month in hospital recovering from the operation and learning to use her new jaw.

She had to learn how to eat and speak again while she underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

She finally finished her cancer treatment on December 28.

Ms Healing, who is mother to Jonno, 28, and Katie, 20, said: ‘Doctors told me I could die in the operation but I had survived one cancer when my children were little and I wasn’t going to let this one beat me.

‘At times it was really difficult to keep positive but I wanted to show my kids their mum was going to be ok.

‘I am so grateful to all of the hospital staff who have helped me so much.’

  More... Teenager who suffered severe brain injuries in horror crash defies medics by coming back from the dead Fifty years of 'big ear' anguish... fixed in 15 minutes: New operation can end distress for million Britons with badly protruding ears

World-leading head and neck surgeons Dr Gary Walton and Dr Raj Sandhu used a titanium chain - which looks like a bike chain –to hold the reconstructed jaw together after the diseased tissue was removed.

This tissue was replaced with skin grafts from the school science technician’s arm and another graft was also used from her stomach to replace tissue taken from the arm, the Coventry Telegraph reports.

Doctors used a 'bike chain' implant to reconstruct her jaw during a 12-hour operation at University Hospital, Coventry

Following surgery she spent a month in hospital learning to eat and speak again. She also had to have chemotherapy and radiotherapy

She said: ‘The jaw’s still sore. But considering what the doctors have done, it’s good.

‘I wasn’t sure at first, when the doctors asked me, but I just wanted to get rid of the cancer obviously, and so just let them get on with it really.’

Dr Walton said: ‘Unfortunately, Liese’s story is not an unusual one.

The diseased tissue in Ms Healing's jaw was removed and replaced with a graft from her arm, the wound in her arm was then repaired using a graft from her stomach

Ms Healing says she is extremely grateful to Dr Gary Walton and Dr Raj Sandhu who carried out the operation which saved her life

‘We are seeing an increase in the number of patients with jaw cancer because they don’t know the symptoms and they think it only affects older people.

‘Liese is living proof that anyone can be affected and was very lucky that her dentist referred her to see a specialist when he did.

‘Anyone who has a persistent mouth ulcer or mouth wound that won’t heal should go to see their GP to be on the safe side.’