The Mouth Cancer Foundation would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Dr Philip Lewis, who has been its president for the past three years. Philip will remain with the charity as past president. One of its long-serving clinical ambassadors, Mahesh Kumar, is the new Mouth Cancer Foundation president.

Mahesh is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. Since completing his study in dentistry from Kings College in London in 1990, he has undertaken a number of courses and continued to develop his career in medicine to acquire practical skills and essential experience in ear, nose and throat surgery; accident and emergency medicine; and general surgery. Mahesh currently works as a consultant at the Hillingdon and North West London Hospitals. He is committed to raising awareness of mouth cancer.

Mahesh has been involved in mouth cancer for over 20 years and is a full-time cancer surgeon in London. His passion is to support cancer patients and their families and promote research to eventually eliminate the disease. Mahesh lectures widely on head and neck cancers and tumours of the jaws both nationally and internationally.

Mahesh has shared with us his vision for the next term, “The original reason d’etre for the Mouth Cancer Foundation was to support mouth cancer patients and their families as well as to promote awareness. I think we have a number of issues to address over the next five years.

“Take the charity to the next level and make it self-sufficient with another full-time employee.

“This means running more fund-raising events such as golf days/walks/coffee mornings/conference stands all over the UK.

“Education – encourage mouth cancer awareness in Dental schools and Schools of Dental Hygiene and launch the Dental Team Accreditation Scheme.

“Support – Increase the support that we offer to patients through counselling services, regular coffee mornings around the UK and if we had funds then training and funding lymphoedema services around the UK. Post treatment surgery – raise awareness of dental issues and management and ongoing support. For professionals we could support small, local research projects.

“We already work closely with the Oral Health Foundation, Swallows Head and Neck Cancer Charity and the Head and Neck Cancer Coalition UK. We can work towards working more closely with other head and neck charities as well.”

The charity would also like to introduce its new president elect, Joss Harding. Joss goes above and beyond every year for the Mouth Cancer Foundation, running the online support group, speaking at events and conferences, and continuing to help raise awareness.

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