Father, 50, is diagnosed with tongue cancer after seeing symptom in photo of a warning label HE was designing for cigarette packet.

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A man has told how his life was saved by the photograph on a packet of cigarettes.
Mark Knight realised he had cancer after he saw the signs in a graphic warning image he was designing for use on cigarette packets.
The 50-year-old graphic designer from Bristol has been creating cigarette packets for more than 30 years but in June he noticed he had similar symptoms to those on a packet he was designing.

Mark Knight, 50, was diagnosed with tongue cancer after recognising the signs from the warning on a cigarette packet he was designing. He has had surgery to remove the tumour and rebuild his tongue (pictured)

As a result, he went to his doctor and was quickly diagnosed with cancer of the tongue.
He had an operation last month to remove the tumour and replace the missing tissue with skin and a vein from his forearm.
Mr Knight, who smoked 10 cigarettes a day for 20 years before giving up in 2005, said: ‘I am very lucky. If I had a different job I may not have ever recognised the symptoms. My job saved my life.

 

‘It would have probably been another four or five weeks before I would have started to think about going to a doctor or anything like that. I may not have done.
‘I am so lucky I do what I do for a living. That is the simple point. That picture is the thing that really set me into action and made me go and find out what was wrong with me.
‘I first realised something might be wrong in June. I had the operation in September.

Mr Knight recognised the signs of tongue cancer from a cigarette packet (pictured) that he was designing for an Australian company. He says that he believes his job saved his life

‘I have had cancer of the tongue and they removed it all away and basically in the job that I do I saw this picture it and aroused some sort of suspicion in my mind as to what was going on.
‘They removed a cancerous tumour from the tongue and replaced it with skin and a vein from my forearm.
‘They also removed cells from my neck as well as some teeth. I will be in recovery for another three weeks and am looking forward to going back to doing the job I did before.’
Father-of-two Mr Knight was designing the image for display on a packet of Australian cigarettes.
It showed a woman suffering severe throat and mouth cancer.

Mr Knight is now urging the British government to force British cigarette companies to put warnings over the whole of their packets so that no branding is visible

Now in recovery and preparing for radiotherapy, Mr Knight is urging the British government to force UK firms to carry warning images over the whole of their packets so no branding is visible.
Last year Australia became the first country in the world to adopt the policy - which sees packets entirely covered in graphic warnings.
Despite a recent survey by the British Heart Foundation which revealed that a third of UK teenagers are put off smoking due to the health warning pictures, the government is not convinced.
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘We take very seriously the potential for standardised packaging to reduce smoking rates.
‘But in light of the differing views, we have decided to wait until the emerging impact of the decision in Australia can be measured and then we will make a decision.’
Mr Knight said: ‘I mainly design them for Australian companies and I haven’t seen that many in this country.
‘I would urge this to change and I encourage people to really look at the pictures on the side of the packets.
‘If I had seen a British one I wouldn’t have known anything about my symptoms as the picture wouldn’t be there.’
A spokesperson for Mr Knight’s company Studio 404, said: ‘Mark is an important and popular member of our team, we look forward to having him back.
‘We were all concerned to hear that he had discovered a potential medical issue whilst viewing a tobacco health warning image during the course of his job.
‘All of us in the studio have been exposed to these types of health warning images for many years, but this is the first time that we have felt their full impact so close to home.
‘Looking back over the past few weeks it is quite a remarkable story to think that Mark discovered the cancer in the way that he did.’

WHAT IS TONGUE CANCER AND WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?

Tongue cancer is classed as a form of mouth cancer.
Symptoms include a red or white patch on the tongue that does not clear up, a persistent sore throat, an ulcer that does not heal, pain when swallowing, numbness in the mouth or bleeding from the tongue.
Risk factors include smoking and drinking a lot of alcohol.
Treatment depends on the size of the cancer and whether it has spread.
It usually involves surgery, radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy.

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