Jeff Bradford, 62, initially blamed gym dust for his symptoms before doctors diagnosed stage-three throat cancer caused by HPV16 virus contracted decades earlier
Jeff and his wife Heidi
A father who put a persistent sore throat down to dust while refurbishing his gym was stunned to discover it was throat cancer – triggered by the HPV16 virus transmitted through oral sex.
Jeff Bradford, 62, first experienced a scratchy throat following work on the rafters of his gym in March 2016. “We were in the loft putting some equipment up onto the rafters and there was a lot of dust and insulation. I had a mask but a couple of days after I had a bit of a sore throat and I thought it was just the dust but I couldn’t shake it,” he said. He attempted to treat it by gargling soluble aspirin, assuming it was an ordinary sore throat.
When there was no improvement after a fortnight, Jeff consulted his GP, who diagnosed “classic tonsillitis” and issued antibiotics. As the symptoms continued, he saw another doctor, who provided a stronger prescription and took a throat swab, ultimately referring him to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
“They must have seen the photos and thought ‘there’s something dodgy going on there’. I couldn’t see anything but I could feel something touching the back of my tongue, it was making me gag. It was like something was tickling the back of my tongue,” Jeff remembered.
At hospital, a consultant examined Jeff and arranged a biopsy. While on the operating table, the surgeon informed him the thumb-sized growth at the rear of his throat had doubled in size since the previous scan and advised immediate removal. “The surgeon came up that evening [after the surgery] and he said ‘looking at it, I think you’ve got stage three cancer.’ I was just shocked,” Jeff said, reports the Daily Star.
After the four-hour operation, test results confirmed stage-three throat cancer. Medical professionals told Jeff that the cancer stemmed from the HPV16 strain, which can be passed on through sexual contact, particularly oral sex.
“A week later I went back and that’s when they mentioned HPV, I didn’t know what that was. HPV is caught through sexual transmission, it’s normally from oral sex. I was totally shocked it was from that,” Jeff said, adding that doctors suggested he’d picked the virus up decades earlier, before he met his wife Heidi Bradford.
Jeff endured chemotherapy and 35 sessions of radiotherapy, which left him confined to bed for three months. “Radiotherapy caused really bad burns. It was like someone took a blowtorch to my neck, it was horrible. I went home and went to bed for three months,” he said. Now a decade clear of cancer, Jeff is encouraging others not to dismiss ongoing symptoms. “If someone has a persistent sore throat my advice is to get it checked out, it could be easily missed if you don’t push it. Everybody does it, don’t they? It’s a normal, sexual activity with somebody you love… I would never say to anyone ‘give up oral sex’… but it might put people off that. I think if it’s not talked about quite candidly it’ll get brushed under the carpet and if people are embarrassed to talk about it they may avoid treatment,” he said.
Jeff, a former Royal Air Force corporal and father-of-two from Forres, Moray, Scotland, described his diagnosis as simply “bad luck.”
“I’ve had a few partners before I met my wife, but you just go about life like everyone else. You don’t expect when you’re young ‘do that and I might get cancer when I’m 50-odd’,” he said.
Understanding HPV
The NHS explains that human papillomavirus (HPV) comprises a collection of viruses affecting skin and moist membranes, including the cervix, anus, mouth, and throat. Transmission typically occurs through sexual contact, including oral sex, and the virus can trigger cellular changes potentially leading to cancers such as cervical or throat cancer.
