Dad woke up with a “stiff neck”, but that was only the beginning of his ordeal

A dad who thought he had just ‘fallen asleep’ after waking up with a stiff neck was actually living with a silent but deadly cancer.

Jonathan Copley, 54, from Aigburth, suffered a ‘crack in the throat’ last February – but this seemingly minor problem was actually a symptom of something much more serious. Head and neck cancer, a relatively uncommon type of cancer that affects about 12,400 people each year, took hold in her neck and spread to her lymph nodes.

The father-of-three said: “I woke up one morning with a stiff neck and drove to London and thought I had just slept funny. I didn’t think of anything. I went to work, came home and the next morning. it still wasn’t right And then I found a lump in my throat – it just came out.

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“Other than a sore throat, I had no symptoms at all.”

Jonathan went to see his GP and a week later told his wife Liz, an experienced nurse, what he found. She insisted on a trip to the hospital, and soon Jonathan’s mysterious lump was diagnosed as metastatic cancer. But the primary source of his cancer was still unknown, so he was listed for exploratory surgery at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre.

In May 2023, he underwent robotic oral surgery, removing his tonsils and part of his tongue for further testing. He then underwent another operation to remove the cancerous lump from his neck.

He said: “Because the cancer was in my throat, they took out my tonsils and lasered a section off the back of my tongue. This was the biggest pain of the entire event. I never felt sick during the whole ordeal, but once they took out my tonsils, it was excruciatingly painful, I struggled to eat.

“That was just the beginning. They took samples from my tonsils and my tongue and that’s when they found out it was tonsil cancer. Once they confirmed this, I had to go in for a neck dissection – a large cut in the side of my neck. – and they took out my lump. After that it was a course of radiotherapy every day at Clatterbridge, I lost all my saliva, all my taste buds.

“Toward the end of October, the side effects of the radiation started to wear off a bit and everything seemed OK.”

Jonathan will need regular check-ups for the next five years – but said “the future is bright” as he was lucky enough to catch his cancer at an early stage. To show his thanks to staff at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, he and two friends decided to embark on a 230-mile cycle ride from London to Liverpool – raising more than £10,000.

He said: “We started at 4.30am from Waterloo yesterday (June 23) and went almost diagonally to Liverpool. We left Parliament as the sun rose and arrived at Clatterbridge Cancer Center in the shape of the sun. had settled.”

He added: “With a cancer diagnosis, you lose control of your life. You have to hand everything over to the healthcare professionals, place a lot of trust and confidence in the team that they have your best interest at heart, and know that there may not be a clear end to the nightmare.

“These past nine months have been difficult to navigate, but thanks to everyone who has looked after and supported me, I now look to a positive future and wanted to do something – anything – to help repay the care and the kindness that was bestowed upon me. by the Clatterbridge Cancer Center team.”