A UK student was left unable to move the left side of her face after undergoing life-saving surgery to remove a tumor wrapped around her nerves.
Ella Tyman, 21, woke up with a puffy and swollen eyes and went to the walk-in clinic thinking she had an infection.
But the doctors noticed an inch-long lump behind her left ear and she was sent to Aintree Hospital in Liverpool.
Scans and two biopsies revealed she had parotid gland cancer — a rare type of head and neck cancer.
She underwent a six hour surgery to remove the tumor but doctors had to cut some of Ella’s nerves because the tumor was wrapped around them.
Ella woke up unable to move the left side of her face and despite daily special face exercises, regular Botox treatments, and more surgery, she has only been able to regain ten percent of movement in her face.
She has now been declared cancer free.
Ella, who is looking for her first job in film and TV, from Liverpool, said: “When I woke up I knew straight away.
“I could feel that my face wasn’t working.
“I felt like my life was over in that moment; it was heart-breaking.
“I really felt for the surgeon too; she was really upset.
“In the time between my scans and the operation, the cancer had doubled in size.
“I’m just so happy and grateful that she got the cancer out.
“Having a cancer diagnosis was scary, but we were all expecting it to be a simple procedure and about a week to recover, so I was feeling okay.”
Ella went to her walk in clinic in March 2023 and the doctor checked the glands in her neck and spotted a lump.
She said: “I was a bit worried about my eye infection but I left with a whole new worry about the lump.
“I’m lucky he noticed it though, I hadn’t.”
The medic told Ella she would need to go to Aintree Hospital because she was young and the lump was unusual.
Over the next five months, Ella underwent two CT scans, an ultrasound, an MRI scan and two biopsies.
Then, on Aug. 10, 2023, Ella got the biopsy results back, and doctors told her she had cancer.
She said: “Looking back it was scary, but at the time I just thought ‘it’ll be okay, they’ll sort it’.
“I just planned for university and my future and then it all went wrong.”
Ella was expecting to have the operation towards the end of September, but got a phone call on Sept. 5 offering her the opportunity the following morning because there had been a cancelation.
Medics explained the operation was a simple one which would take about 45 minutes and a week to recover.
But once they started the operation, they found the tumor had grown and was more complicated, and they had to cut some off Ella’s facial nerves in the surgery on Sept. 6.
Ella could feel but not move her face when she woke from the operation.
“It was frightening”, she said, “My face felt really odd and I could see in everyone’s faces that something really bad had happened while I’d been under the anesthetic.”
It was four months before she could look in the mirror at her face, which drooped on the left, or put on make-up.
Despite the challenges, Ella went to Salford University on Sept. 15, 2023, to begin her degree in TV and radio studies.
Ella who shared her story with Talk to the Press, said: “It was so scary meeting everyone.
“I was feeling very fragile.
“It was horrible, but I would have felt worse if I’d kept sitting at home doing nothing.
“I knew I was going to love my course.”
In November 2023, she began 33 rounds of proton therapy to eliminate remaining cancer cells at Christie’s Hospital in Manchester before being declared cancer-free on Jan. 10, 2024.
She said: “Proton therapy made me really ill, but I was cancer-free after that.
“It felt like a weight lifted, and I was able to make a fresh start and start going out again.”
Ella has 30 shots of Botox every three months to help relax the muscles in her face because the muscles she can use have to work harder than before.
She does face exercises and massages for five minutes each morning, and just had a face-lift operation in May 2026, where her jowls were moved and fat was taken from her belly to fill a gap in her face.
She can close her eye a little now and lift her cheek a small amount, but Ella still has to use a special sticker to keep her left eye shut so she can sleep.
“I signed the form about risks, but I didn’t think much about it. I just wanted the tumour out,” Ella said.
“I hated the way I looked, and I worried so much about what people might say to me.
“I was so close to giving up university, but I was really excited about my course, and I wanted to meet new people.
“I’m so glad I did it, I’m so much more confident again now.
“I still have down days when I worry about how I look, and I grieve my old looks, but I’ve come through this and I feel amazing.
“If I can survive cancer at 18, then I can do anything.”
