Sussex mum diagnosed with rare 'potato cancer' is ready for Race for Life with her family

Mum-of-three, Vikki Harris, had no idea she had squamous cell carcinoma until a lump the size of a new potato appeared on the left side of her neck.

The cancer was under her tongue but wasn’t visible or painful and Vikki had no sense of being ill. By the time it was diagnosed, the disease had already spread to her lymph nodes, causing the lump in her neck.

When Vikki and husband Phil broke the news to their children as gently and as honestly as they could, Sullivan, eight, and Hattie, six, inspected at the lump and nicknamed it ‘the potato’. Vikki reassured them the cancer could be got rid of, and suddenly it was less scary.

Vikki, 37, from Lancing, West Sussex, said: “The children could see the ‘potato’ as a kind of visual representation of the cancer, so it was less demonised for them.”

Now, nearly a year later, Vikki has completed her treatment and returned to the job she loves, in marketing for Youngs Pubs. She also helps Phil run The Bull at Ditchling.

Grateful for the life-saving treatment she had, Vikki and her family are taking part in Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life at Stanmer Park, Brighton, doing both the Pretty Muddy Kids event on Saturday, July 1, and the 5k on Sunday, July 2.

She is calling on others – women, men and children – to join them there, or at one of the other events around the county this summer to raise money for life-saving research.

Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life, in partnership with headline sponsor Standard Life, is an inspiring series of 3k, 5k, 10k, Pretty Muddy and Pretty Muddy Kids events which raise millions of pounds every year to help beat cancer by funding crucial research. This is the 30th year of Race for Life and participants will receive a special medal to mark the milestone.

Every year around 54,100 people are diagnosed with cancer in the South East and one in two people in the UK born after 1960 will get cancer in their lifetime. Money raised at Race for Life enables scientists to find new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer – helping to save more lives.

Vikki said: “We all have a reason to Race for Life. I race for life because my family and I are grateful to have been gifted more time to love each other. We feel it’s important for us to give back and to do it together will just make us stronger.”

Vikki and her family are pictured on Brighton & Hove beach, a place with special significance for them. It has always been a favourite place to visit, even after hospital treatment. It’s even where they broke the news to the children about the cancer.

Vikki knows exactly how vital it is to raise funds for future research. She needed six weeks of combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The radiotherapy involved wearing a head and shoulder mask, which pinned her to a table, so the treatment could be aimed precisely at the cancer. The mask had to be fitted so tightly that it left visible mesh patterns on Vikki’s forehead.

She was treated with cisplatin, a drug whose first clinical trials in the UK were led by Cancer Research UK-funded scientists. Thanks to research, cisplatin is now used to treat more than 13,000 cancer patients in England every year.

After meeting her oncologist, Vikki felt ‘powerful, positive and prepared’ for what was to come. But there were still surprises – most of them unpleasant – in store. She said: “Eating was hard – there was nausea and loss of appetite and the radiotherapy burnt my mouth and throat so they were extremely sore, swollen and sensitive and riddled with ulcerated patches.

“My sense of taste had fully disappeared. Food tasted like garbage – I was left with a grim, salty, sewage flavour in my mouth. Immediately after each chemo, there were full days of ‘sleep, eat, vom, repeat’.

“Even in recovery, there were days where the pain was like razor blades in my mouth and throat and even cool water is battery acid on my tongue. But there were also good days where I could get to the beach and sit under a parasol and watch the waves!”

As her treatment progressed, and the ‘potato’ changed, so did the names for it.

“It became a bit of a joke. It started out as something like a Jersey Royal, then went to a Cornish Mid and ended up as a Maris Piper! It gave us something to laugh about,” she said.

When she was diagnosed, Vikki searched for others going through the same experience and emotions as her but couldn’t find what she needed, so she started her own blog – aptly named Cancer of the Potato.

“I needed something that was warts-and-all. I love to write so in the end, I wrote my own. And I’m surprised how many people reached out to me with well wishes or to discuss their own experiences,” she said.

Now Vikki is on a slow but steady road to recovery and is regularly monitored. “Instead of a steady ascent to my former glory, I discovered cancer recovery is more like a rollercoaster – one with lots of stomach-clenching barrel rolls and shriek-worthy loops, crushing lows and vomit-induing plummets,” she said.

Race for Life events at Stanmer Park, Brighton, on July 1st and 2nd, are open to all ages and abilities. Women, men and children can choose from 3k, 5k and 10k or the Pretty Muddy or Pretty Muddy Kids events which involve a mud-splattered obstacle course.

Cancer Research UK’s Lynn Daly said: “We‘re incredibly grateful to Vikki and her family for their support. We’d love everyone to join us during our 30th year of Race for Life. Sadly, cancer affects all of us in some way. Whether people are living with cancer, taking part in honour of or in memory of a loved one with cancer, or signing up to protect their own children’s future, everyone has a reason to Race for Life. Together we can bring about a future free from the fear of cancer. So we’re asking everyone: ‘Who will you Race for’?

“Race for Life is open to all. For some people, it’s literally a walk in the park. For others, it’s a jog. Some may opt to push themselves harder, taking up the challenge of the 10K distance. But whatever people can do, we’re looking forward to welcoming all ages and abilities.”

Race for Life, in partnership with headline sponsor Standard Life, raises funds for world-class research to help beat 200 types of cancer – including bowel cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, testicular cancer, brain cancer, children’s cancers and leukaemia.

Chief executive of Standard Life, Andy Curran, said: “We’re extremely proud to have been chosen as the headline sponsor of Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life. This sponsorship will help encourage participation and raise funds for life-saving research to help beat cancer.”

For more information and to enter, visit raceforlife.org

Other Race for Life events in Sussex are: Worthing, Steyne Gardens, June 18, 3k and 5k; Eastbourne, Sports Park, May 28, 3k 5k, 10k; Horsham Park, June 4, 3k and 5k; Hastings, Alexandra Park, June 11, 3k, 5k, 10k and Crawley, Tilgate Park, July 22, 3k, 5k, 10k, Pretty Muddy and Pretty Muddy Kids.