I couldn’t shake a sore throat for months and it turned out to be CANCER

A married father of a child who had a persistent cold was diagnosed with stage four throat cancer caused by a sexually transmitted disease.

Steve Bergman, now 63 and from the UK, came down with a series of colds in 2015 that he couldn’t get rid of and had pain in his neck.

Doctors diagnosed the actor with throat cancer after finding a tumor on his right tonsil. It was removed via surgery and he then received chemotherapy before being declared cancer free.

Tests later confirmed that the actor’s cancer was caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), a common sexually transmitted infection responsible for 70 percent of the 25,000 throat cancers diagnosed annually in America.

It was not clear how Mr. Bergman, who now lives on the south coast of the US, contracted the virus, but said he loved “exploring” during his childhood. He said, “As a much younger man I was exploring the world, part of that world was finding a mate.” It comes after an expert warned the UK and US could face an ‘epidemic’ of throat cancer caused by HPV.

Mr. Bergman has had surgery on his throat to remove the cancer. He then received chemotherapy and radiotherapy before being declared cancer-free

HPV can infect a person’s throat through oral sexual contact, such as with the penis or vagina.

The virus is normally harmless, but sometimes it can persist and cause harmful mutations in cells, which can lead to cancer.

Health officials say the virus is also the cause of more than nine in 10 cancers of the anus and cervix, 70 percent of those in the vagina and 60 percent of those in the penis.

Everyone in America ages 11 and 12 is being offered a vaccine against HPV to prevent infection and minimize the risk of these cancers. It was first offered to girls in 2006 and boys in 2009.

But being in his 50s, Mr. Bergman missed the vaccine cut-off date.

Mr Bergman said he is a ‘super fit’ runner and cyclist, who always followed a healthy diet and was not a heavy drinker.

But in 2016, just before his 56th birthday, he fell ill. He said: ‘I had a series of colds in succession and I had a sore throat and fatigue.

‘My wife was very annoyed with me because when I was eating, the food got stuck and I ended up having to cough it up.

“It wasn’t until I went back to my doctor that I told him I had pain in my neck, and I think that alarm bells started ringing with him.”

This graph shows how the number of new cases of throat cancer in the US has increased since 1999. It rises by about one percent per year in women and three percent in men

These data show that throat cancer rates in the UK are on the rise, as in the US

He saw a specialist within a week who inserted a camera into his nose and discovered cancer on his right tonsil.

Mr Bergman said the diagnosis made him feel “absolutely numb” and that when it was revealed he “froze a bit” and “didn’t hear any more details”.

Within a week, he returned for what was supposed to be an hour-long biopsy, in which a small sample of tissue is removed from the tumor to confirm the cancer diagnosis.

But during the procedure — which ended up taking three hours — the doctors decided to remove the tumor that was nearly blocking his airway.

They also gave him a tracheostomy – where a hole is made in the front of the neck through which the patient can breathe – out of concern that the swelling could close off his trachea.

He then spent a week and a half in hospital recovering from the surgery, before moving on to six weeks of chemotherapy and a period of radiotherapy.

After chemotherapy, the doctors also removed his tracheostomy, closing the hole in his throat, which they said was possible because the swelling in his tonsils had subsided.

The treatments worked and he was declared cancer free in 2021.

Tests also showed that the cancer Mr. Bergman had was caused by an HPV infection.

He had not been vaccinated against HPV because the shot did not become available until 2006, after his time as a younger man.

Mr. Bergman does not know where he contracted HPV, but said that as a younger man he liked to experiment.

“As a much younger man I was exploring the world, part of that world was finding a partner,” he said.

“So I was into sex and just into just enjoying life.”

Mr Bergman said he has now been described as something of a ‘postcard’ for HPV-induced throat cancer after revealing his experience.

He said some of the feedback he had received from the public was “almost judgmental” and accused him of being promiscuous.

“Actually, I don’t see it that way,” he said. “I’ve lived a life and I’ve lived a full, positive life, and I have a wife and a child.”

“Where I am now, I don’t see it as a judgment. I was just really unlucky with why my HPV virus turned into cancer then.”

Several studies have shown that people who have more sexual partners have a higher risk of HPV and, as a result, cancer.

Doctors have recognized HPV as the leading cause of oral cancer, outpacing smoking, alcohol consumption, and unhealthy diets.

This is because the act can lead to an HPV infection in the back of the throat or near the tonsils.

It comes after a doctor warned that the UK and US are facing an ‘epidemic’ of throat cancer caused by oral sex.

Dr. Hisham Mehanna, from the University of Birmingham in the UK, said people with multiple sexual partners have an up to nine times higher risk of throat cancer.

Dr. Mehanna wrote in The Conversation, “Over the past two decades, the rate of throat cancer in the West has increased rapidly, to the point that some have called it an epidemic.

“This is due to a big rise in a specific type of throat cancer called oropharyngeal cancer.”

Only 54 percent of Americans have signed up for the HPV vaccine, well below the 80 percent it would take to stop the spread of the virus.