'I thought my snoring was from blocked nose, but it was something far worse'

A mum-of-two was left stunned after what she thought was a harmless blocked nose and new snoring habit turned out to be a sign of a rare and aggressive cancer, which was already eroding her skull.

Claire Barbery, 51, from Newquay, Cornwall, had no idea her mild symptoms were anything to worry about. In fact, she nearly cancelled the very hospital appointment that would change, and possibly save, her life. Claire, who works in a care home, put her persistent nasal blockage down to repeated Covid tests and thought nothing of the fact that she had suddenly started snoring at night.

She said: “I started snoring, which I’d never done before. I was waking up breathing through my mouth. Even then, I nearly cancelled my hospital appointment. I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time.”

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But in January 2023, after months of no improvement and with her concerns growing, she finally sought help. The mum had olfactory neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that grows in the upper part of the nasal cavity. Scans revealed a 5cm tumour that had already begun eating away at the bone at the base of her skull.

Claire was immediately sent for complex and high-risk surgery at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where consultant surgeon Shahz Ahmed, who specialises in the type of procedure she needed, removed the tumour in a delicate operation that was filmed for Channel 5’s gripping documentary Surgeons: A Matter of Life or Death.

He explained: “This was a very rare form of cancer. It had already gone through the skull base and into the base of the brain. If we hadn’t acted, it could have spread through her body. The surgery was high risk – we were working close to the brain’s main blood supply, with dangers of stroke, seizures, and even death.”

The operation was a success, but not without cost. To ensure all the cancer was removed, surgeons had to take out Claire’s olfactory bulbs, meaning she’s now permanently lost her sense of smell.

After her surgery, Claire underwent six gruelling weeks of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She’s now under close monitoring but is slowly returning to work and spending quality time with her husband Gary and daughters Lowenna, 27, and Keizha, 25.

“I very nearly didn’t go to that appointment,” Claire said. “I thought, ‘There’s nothing wrong – don’t waste NHS time.’ But looking back, that decision could’ve cost me my life.”

Now, as part of World Head and Neck Cancer Day, Claire is working with the UK’s Get A-Head Charitable Trust to raise awareness and urge others to take persistent symptoms seriously, no matter how small they seem. She said: “If you know your body, you’ve got to push. If something feels wrong – don’t ignore it.”