Honouring the memory of Maria (Gizzie) Kirton

In November 2019 Maria, only 33 at the time, found some concerning white marks on her tongue. She was told that she would require a biopsy, and in February 2020 she had her first biopsy. The biopsy recovery was very long and painful, her speech was impaired and could only eat liquids for weeks after (all while raising her 2-year-old daughter Addison). The biopsy came back as being "moderate epithelial dysplasia" - long story short, it came back as "pre-cancer".

From there, her surgeon decided on a checkup every 6 months to monitor it. After only 3 short months, the white marks returned so Maria met with an oral cancer specialist at Toronto General/Princess Margaret Hospitals where she was told it looked to still be dysplasia and to continue with her checkups every 6 months. In October 2020 Maria endured a painful tonsillectomy, and her ENT also did a biopsy from the back area of her tongue, and the results came back clear!

Fast forward to September 2021, Maria, her husband Matt and now 3-year-old daughter Addison received the exciting news they were expecting TWINS! With double the excitement and double the pregnancy hormones, the white marks on her tongue started to grow bigger and bigger. Maria met with her oral surgeon again and discussed another biopsy after the babies were born - but that was still months away. In May 2022 her sweet twins Mckenna and Noah were born, but at this point, the growth on her tongue had grown even more to the point it felt like she had another tongue. Maria was then scheduled for surgery in July 2022 where the surgeon removed a large growth. Maria then started a very long and hard recovery (just 2 months after recovering from having twins!), and it was nearly 4 weeks before she could even eat soft food again.

Then Maria's worst day of her life arrived. Maria's husband, Matt, took her to the oral surgeon for her results. The doctor told them Maria has Oral Cancer. Maria has never smoked a day in her life, never used chewing tobacco and does not drink heavily. She couldn't understand why she was being told she had Oral Cancer!! Getting that news at 36 years young, with a sweet 4-year-old daughter, Addison and 4-month-old twins, Mckenna and Noah, was just unimaginable.

Maria was diagnosed with "invasive squamous cell carcinoma". The oral surgeon sent Maria back to Toronto General Hospital - this time it was very serious. Since her diagnosis, Maria has already had many in-person and over-the-phone appointments as well as an MRI on her head and neck and CT on her chest. Thankfully the chest CT came back clear, but the head and neck MRI showed that there is still a large tumor on the tongue as well as a suspicious lymph node on her neck.

On Monday, September 26th Maria will undergo a very long, 8-hour surgery where they will do a hemi-glossectomy (removing half of her tongue), reconstruction of the tongue and removal of 30-40 lymph nodes in her neck. Skin grafts will also be required. She will be in the hospital recovering for some time and the nodes will be sent to a pathologist to make sure they are clear of cancer. The wait for these results could be up to two weeks.

To say Maria and her family are scared is an understatement. While she should be enjoying every moment of raising their 4-month-old twins and enjoying Addison's first year of full in-person school in SK, she instead is scared for her health and her family's future. To add to it all, Maria was not eligible for mat leave when she had the twins (you can thank COVID for that). Maria has a very long road ahead of her. She has so much to be fighting for and we know she will fight like hell, and has all the support and love from family and friends. This GoFundMe has been put together to support her, Matt and the kids, and help to take some of the financial burdens away while she kicks cancer's ass! Maria is the most generous person we know and is always putting others before herself. It is very hard for Maria to ask for help but right now she needs to focus solely on herself and let others help care for her family. If you are unable to donate, please share in hopes Maria's story brings awareness to oral cancer and how important regular dental check-ups are.