Head and Neck Cancer – Surviving and Overcoming Challenges – will be held at Liverpool Maritime Museum on Friday, November 11. Tony McDonough reports.

A major conference on oral cancer is being held in Liverpool next week with experts on hand to offer free screening for the disease.

Head and Neck Cancer – Surviving and Overcoming Challenges – will be held at Merseyside Maritime Museum on Friday, November 11.

Attendance to the event is free but by ticket only from Chris Curtis, chief executive of the Swallows Head and Neck Cancer Support Group. Email him at chris@theswallows.org.uk or by clicking here.

The Swallows has teamed up with Dr Chet Trivedy of the Oral Health Foundation to provide oral health checks and visual mouth cancer examinations to help raise awareness of the signs, symptoms and causes of mouth cancer.

Screening will take place in the main foyer and is available to anyone visiting the museum.

Chris is travelling the world as a Global Cancer Ambassador to seek out the best ways of helping people cope with the cancer journey and its treatment.

The conference programme includes motivational speaker Chris Moon who knows all about overcoming challenges.

He lost and arm and a leg when he was blown up clearing mines in Africa but completed the London Marathon less than a year after leaving hospital.

He is also one of the few westerners to survive being taken prisoner by Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

Also speaking will be throat cancer survivor Steve Bergman and Professor Ros Dowse, of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Rhodes University, South Africa, who has also suffered from head and neck cancer will speak about her experiences.

Peter Baker, Campaign Director for the HPV Action Team will talk about the need to vaccinate all adolescent boys against the Human Papilloma Virus.

Chris said: “Anybody can get mouth cancer and we are delighted to be working with the Oral Health Foundation to raise awareness of this debilitating condition.

“Being able to spot the signs may be the difference between life and death.”

“I know from personal experience that surviving cancer can be a long, hard, journey. The more help you can get the better.”