Pop star feared mouth cancer would silence her

BUCKS Fizz star Jay Aston feared she might never sing again after nearly half her tongue was removed to treat a rare mouth cancer.

It left Jay, 58, mute for 10 days and she spent 18 months recovering.

But she returned to the stage this month for the first night of Bucks Fizz spin-off band The Fizz’s 17-day tour, Up Close & Personal With The Fizz.

Jay, who was joined by bandmates Cheryl Baker and Mike Nolan for the nerve-jangling gig, said: “I can’t tell you what an amazing feeling that is. “When I tried to sing last year for the first time after my operation I had to mime. “I still have this real lisp and my sound is not quite the same... but the main thing is that I can sing again.

“I have got to have check-ups for the next five years but I was determined to get back in the band and that was my goal. At the same time I had to be realistic that if the cancer had spread between the first and second operation I might not have that choice and it was the unknown that was scary.”

Jay’s dentist diagnosed her with auto-immune disease lichen planus in 2015 and by January 2018 it was spreading from the back of her tongue.

A biopsy later revealed precancerous cells but after surgery a month later, doctors found cancer cells throughout the affected part.

Jay then faced a seven-hour operation to remove 40 per cent of her tongue, which was replaced with skin from her upper thigh.

She said: “Skin was grafted to the left side of my tongue and I asked for the graft to be taken higher up so the scar would be invisible when my skirt was pulled off. My tongue used to be 100 per cent muscle and now half is tissue from my leg.

“It doesn’t have the same flexibility, which means the other part has to work twice as hard.” Next year marks the 40th anniversary of Bucks Fizz’s 1981 Eurovision-winning hit Making Your Mind Up, which sold more than four million records. Jay’s illness has now brought The Fizz closer as a band. An acrimonious split after Bucks Fizz’s nearfatal coach crash in 1984 resulted in band members Bobby G and Cheryl not speaking to Jay for 23 years.

But Cheryl, 66, is full of praise for Jay. She said: “As soon as she could she was up on stage and she was a real trouper.

“We are like family and we argue, but we also make up. Life really is too short.”

● The Fizz album Smoke

And Mirrors is out now