Jeff Bradford, 62, from Forres initially blamed throat symptoms on dust while renovating his gym, but was diagnosed with stage-three throat cancer caused by HPV16
A father who originally put a persistent sore throat down to dust while refurbishing his gym was shocked to discover it was throat cancer — triggered by the HPV16 virus transmitted through oral sex.
Jeff Bradford, 62, initially noticed a scratchy sensation after working 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. His first instinct was to gargle soluble aspirin, assuming it was just an ordinary sore throat.
When the symptoms persisted after a fortnight, Jeff visited his GP, who diagnosed “classic tonsillitis” and prescribed antibiotics. As the discomfort continued, he saw a different doctor who gave a stronger course 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 recalled.
At the hospital, a consultant examined Jeff and arranged a biopsy. While on the operating table, the surgeon informed him the thumb-sized growth at the back of his throat had doubled in size since the previous scan and urged 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.
After the four-hour operation, tests confirmed stage-three throat cancer. Medical staff told Jeff the cancer was caused by the HPV16 strain, which can be transmitted through sexual activity, 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, explaining that doctors believed he had contracted the virus decades earlier, before meeting his wife Heidi Bradford.
Jeff underwent chemotherapy and 35 rounds 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 cancer-free, Jeff is urging others not to ignore lingering 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 dad-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.
What is HPV?
The NHS explains that human papillomavirus (HPV) is a group of viruses affecting the skin and moist membranes, including the cervix, anus, mouth, and throat. It is typically spread through sexual activity, including oral sex, and can trigger cellular changes that may lead to cancers such as cervical or throat cancer.
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