Watched almost 8 million times on tiktok, Andrew Coles, a survivor of head and neck cancer makes his daughter her favourite dinner – even though he has no ability to eat or swallow any food or liquid
This video has been watched on tiktok almost 8 million times, bringing the total viewing to almost 25,000 hours.
Andrew Coles, a survivor of head and neck cancer makes his daughter her favourite dinner, which is roast salmon and veggies.
The heart felt clip is flooded with comments, hundreds of thousands of people, touched by Andy’s selfless gesture to cook a meal when he can’t eat or drink at all.
TikTok helps millions learn about head and neck cancer
Over 18 million people are huge fans of my dad on tiktok, with my page turning into a dedicated feed of videos to spread awareness.
Meet Andy – hasn’t eaten since 2020 and can not swallow food, liquid or even his own saliva
When looking at pictures from my 21st birthday, I never have imagined how a small detail in a happy snap would lead to a shock diagnosis that would change my family forever.
In April 2019, my dad was working as a logistics manager in Melbourne when he started feeling fatigued and complaining of a sore throat, as well as noticing a lump on the left-hand side of his neck.
Initially dismissed as a symptom of being run down, then 57-year-old continued to work until he almost passed out when driving me to work one day.
At the hospital, doctors ran tests and discovered the lump in his neck was in fact a tumour; diagnosing him with stage four tonsil and tongue cancer, which is a form of throat cancer.
The Radiation to treat his head and neck cancer was so severe, that it left dad with a rare airways disease. It means he can no longer eat or swallow food orally, taking away one of life’s greatest pleasures… eating food.
The disease he has is called Supraglottic Stenosis, and since the end of his radiation for throat and tonsil cancer, dad has had 7 emergency surgeries, including 3 tracheotomy’s.
Cancer of the head and neck has left him with an airways disability and now the fight is to explore surgeries and treatment to walk more than 20 metres, swallow through his mouth and have some quality of life back.
Through tiktok, over 18 million people have watched how my dad eat through a tube in his belly, day in my life caring for my sick dad after surgeries and of course… the most famous cooking videos (with an occasional tiktok dance on the feed)
A go fund me linked in my tiktok bio has raised over 17 thousand dollars in generous donations towards dad’s medical bills, thanks to the reach received on tiktok.
World Head and Neck Cancer Day
What is Head and Neck Cancer and why is it different?Head and Neck Cancer (HNC) is not just one type of cancer, it includes more than 10 different cancers that can affect a person’s mouth, tongue, throat, salivary glands, skin or voice box.
The treatment for HNC can be brutal as it affects a person’s identify unlike any other cancer. It can leave a person unable to speak, with devastating facial disfigurements and take away basic abilities that we take for granted like eating, breathing, speaking, drinking and swallowing.
Today we reflect and show our support for the 650,000 people who are diagnosed with HNC around the world every year, including over 5,100 Australians.
Tens of thousands are living with side effects, just like my dad.
Men are three times more likely to be diagnosed with head and neck cancer and 60 per cent of oral cancers are advanced by the time they are detected.
My dad has never smoked. However, human papillomavirus (HPV) is the cause of around 70 per cent of oropharyngeal cancers.
These types of cancers occur in the tonsils and base of tongue.
It is estimated 700 Australians will be diagnosed with an oropharyngeal cancer this year, and around 490 of these cases will have been caused by HPV.
What are the symptoms?
There is no screening for Head and Neck Cancer: Early detection is key.
Head and Neck Cancer Australia say the following signs and symptoms are common for many types of head and neck cancer. Sometimes people do not have any signs or symptoms and sometimes the same symptoms can be caused by other things.
Important groups and charities like Head and Neck Cancer Australia exist to provide vital resources that educate, empower and engage HNC patients and their families and to raise awareness about HNC nationally. You can support them here
Head and Neck Cancer Australia is the only Australian charity dedicated to providing education and support to people living with HNC. It was founded by a team of leading clinicians who saw first-hand the profound impact of head and neck cancer and were passionate about driving change.
HNC Facts
There has been a 34% increase in Head and Neck Cancer in the last 10 years.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are disproportionately impacted with a 30% gap in survival rates compared to non-Indigenous Australians.
70% of tonsil and base tongue cancer are caused by the human papillomavirus.
There has been a 385% increase in tongue cancer for otherwise healthy young women.
Men are three times more likely than women to be diagnosed
Three Australians are diagnosed with mouth cancer (oral) every day.
60% of oral cancers are advanced by the time they are detected.
The economic cost of HNC is twice that of breast cancer.
The power of a post
If it wasn’t for tiktok, millions wouldn’t know anything about this type of cancer.
My dad and I are determined to raise awareness and give hope to others going through a similar journey.
I encourage you to share cancer awareness tiktoks, posts, facebook support groups, and stories that you engage with to help families like mine on World Head and Neck Cancer Day.
Donald Trump, former president of the United States, hated Arraignment Day I in Manhattan two months ago, the first time a former president had been criminally charged.
Trump was being forced against his will into a proceeding he had utter contempt for.He was being arrested and fingerprinted and photographed under an indictment under the jurisdiction of Manhattan in New York City for allegations of hush money payments and fraudulent bookkeeping practices to conceal criminal activity. Trump heard the charges read out against him and he entered a plea of not guilty.
Trump had a terrible day. Trump wore a scowl throughout. His countenance was fearsome.What Trump hated most about his arraignment in New York is that he had to sit at a table with his counsel side by side with him — equal to him — and with the judge above him looking down on him. Trump could not control the discussion and could not interrupt to make his points.
Trump was subordinate to the judge. He was subordinate to no one as president.
Arraignment Day II
Arraignment Day II in Miami will be worse from Trump, even more stressful.The charges are substantially more serious:the alleged violation of federal criminal statutes involving the alleged mishandling and illegal possession of classified documents, lying to legal authorities, and obstruction of justice.Potential penalties run to years in prison and millions of dollars in fines.
Trump throughout his business life had always crafted his affairs to avoid being a defendant. But in his term in office, he was caught up in it big time. He was a defendant in two impeachment trials – again, unprecedented events – and left office in disgrace.
But Trump does not feel disgraced. He never does.Trump does not have a reverse gear.He never retreats.Never admits. Never concedes. Never yields.Trump is never embarrassed. Trump never feels ashamed. When something goes wrong, it is always the fault of someone else.
Bill Barr SLAMS his former boss:
“He’s not a victim here. He was totally wrong that he had the right to have those documents. Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets that the country has…He had no right to maintain them and retain them”pic.twitter.com/VViNFpwbzt
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) June 11, 2023
And Trump never repents.
Trump can feel this way because Trump is waging war on behalf of his armies in “the final battle” for the future of the county. In his first, fiery post-indictment speech in Georgia, Trump said, “They’ve launched one witch hunt after another to try and stop our movement, to thwart the will of the American people.In the end, they’re not coming after me. They’re coming after you … “Either we have a Deep State, or we have a Democracy…Either the Deep State destroys America, or WE destroy the Deep State.”
It is a powerful formulation, and his true believers love it.
Hours later, In North Carolina, Trump mainlined his distilled message for the Republican crowd:
“We are a failing nation. We are a nation in decline. And now these radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement.
It’s totally corrupt and we cannot let it happen.
.@RepDanGoldman: "Donald Trump believed the law does not apply to him, and that he would do anything he could to conceal and maintain possession of highly, highly classified national security information that would jeopardize our national security." https://t.co/IfX8bV4EVkpic.twitter.com/Gvjv8aNFkn
With you at my side we will demolish the Deep State.
We will expel the warmongers from our government.
We will drive out the globalists.
We will cast out the communists.
We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country.
We will roll out the fake news media.
We will defeat Joe Bide and we will liberate America from those villains once and for all.”
Any lesser mortal would be staggered by these events.Any other presidential candidate would be driven from the race.But not Trump.
Debase and disgrace
Trump is using the same playbook today as he successfully triggered after being charged in New York:debase and disgrace the legal process by terming it completely political.Trump said the federal indictment is “election interference at the highest level.”
Almost every other Republican running for president has adopted this line, insulating Trump from pressure to leave the field.
Trump’s chief opponent, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said after these indictments: “The weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society. We have for years witnessed an uneven application of the law depending upon political affiliation.”
Republican congressperson Nancy Mace: “This is a banana republic. I can’t believe this is happening.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: “Democrats are arresting their political enemies. and they work together in their corrupt ways to get it done.”
Trump is using his affliction to raise millions of dollars from his base.
Trump will likely face Arraignment Day III in Georgia in August.A state prosecutor is expected to charge Trump with criminal interference in the certification of Georgia’s vote for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
As of now, there is no sign of cracks in Trump’s support among Republican voters.There is no surge to another candidate.What remains to be seen is whether Republican voters, as they see Trump spend his days in courtrooms and his evenings at rallies around the country, reach a conclusion that this is a spectacle too far, too much to bear, and that they want to turn to another conservative populist who stands for them in the political trials— and not the criminal trials – of 2024.
It’s not often that a U.S. President faces federal indictment, but if it’s going to happen to anyone, it might as well be Donald Trump first.
The news that Donald Trump is facing a federal investigation over the removal of secret documents from the White House in 2021 came as no surprise.
Keen watches of the Washington soap opera have seen this playbook before, albeit in a different form.
There is no doubt that Donald Trump is a Washington outsider. But as seriously damaged as he may be (thanks to the events of January 6), his support base has only grown whenever he faces scrutiny.
For his supporters, his legal woes mirror their own relationship with the government – a giant, unfair beast that picks and chooses its fights.
Trump is accused of storing sensitive documents—including those concerning matters of national security—in boxes, some even in a shower.
The documents were seized last August when investigators from the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago.
The Department of Justice has historically avoided charging people who are running for public office. Whether they should do that is a debate for another day. But it’s happening now. And it’s making it all too easy for Trump to claim there is a concerted campaign to get him away from the White House.
Trump exposed the deep state. IF they exist, they probably don’t want him back in power. Whether they exist doesn’t matter really, because plenty of Trump’s supporters agree with him, and believe the secret state is working against them. Call it QAnon, call it a conspiracy – it doesn’t matter in a democracy.
The DoJ now has to go all in. Failing to secure a conviction would be a serious embarrassment for the department.
This is the second time Trump has been indicted in recent months, yet the opinion polls show he only increases his popularity among MAGA and Republican voters. It leaves the Republican party in a difficult position. Support their leading candidate or support the law?
As other Republicans rallied around the embattled candidate, Trump held on to his loyal base of supporters.
For the Democrats, and for Biden, another reality will soon sink in – if Trump becomes President, and they lose office next year, how will a Trump-run DoJ deal with them?
Broadly, the tit-for-tat one-up-manship of U.S. politics is breaking tradition and potentially breaking the country.