Experience: I can’t smile

The surgeon said he might need to cut the nerves to remove the tumour, paralysing that side of my faceMy cancer, an aggressive tumour on the salivary glands, was diagnosed in early 2015. I’d first noticed the lump the previous summer, but tests proved inconclusive. It took a deep-tissue biopsy in January to confirm that it was cancerous. Because of where it was – and because it had been there for about 18 months – there was a good chance the cancer would be embedded in the nerv