A family have been left fearing for the future after a dad-of-three was diagnosed with cancer - just two days after his third child was born. Jay Martin, 47, noticed a lump on his neck in March 2023, and thought it was a swollen gland - until it started to get bigger. Two months later, in May 2023 - just two days after his third child was born - he went to Musgrove Park Hospital, in Taunton, with his wife Sarah, 38, to get it checked out.
Doctors looked down Jay's throat and told him they suspected he had cancer in his tonsil, with a biopsy later confirming the diagnosis. Within two weeks, Jay had an operation to remove one of his tonsils, and started six weeks of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in June 2023. After Jay finished the chemotherapy and radiotherapy, a scan showed the cancer had gone from his tonsils, but was still in his neck.
In February 2024, Jay underwent a throat dissection - an operation to remove 13 lymph nodes, two nerves, and saliva glands. He then went another four months without treatment, until a scan in June 2024 showed the cancer had spread to his chest and spine - and doctors told the family it was incurable. Jay has now started immunotherapy in the hope it will stabilise the cancer - but Sarah admits they don't know what will happen next.
Sarah, a beauty trainer, from Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, said: "The hope is that the immunotherapy will stabilise the cancer. Jay will have the treatment for two years, but we're not sure what will happen. "For the f.