When she woke up on the operating table, Nicky Holthuysen thought her nightmare was over. Diagnosed with a golf ball-sized cancerous tumour only a few weeks before, the surgeon had cut it out and she hoped her life would go back to normal.
But she wasn't ready for what she saw in the mirror when she woke up.
"I looked like I'd had a stroke," the mum of one said.
"They had to cut the facial nerve that helps you to blink and helps you to smile."
It was a blow to the then 33-year-old sociable, single girl to find the left side of her face drooping when she still had her whole life in front of her.
Before the surgery, she thought it would be a temporary hitch and a plastic surgeon would be able to "put her back together again".
But when she visited a plastic surgeon, he did not have such good news.
He said there wasn't anything they could do for her.
"I left the hospital, got into my car in the car park and just cried," Nicky said.
But she refused to accept the verdict. It took a year of repeat visits to her GP until she was referred to Hull Royal Infirmary with the lump protruding from her cheek.
Nicky said she had to stand her ground to get a diagnosis and she was just as determined to get back her smile.
"I thought: 'I'm not going to accept this'," she said.
Marching back in, she made her case and the surgeon "probably felt sorry for her", but there was a three-year wait until she could return to her former self.
Having more surgery actually saved her life when the surgeon removing skin from her face, found cancer still lurking beneath.
Skin grafts went part of the way to returning Nicky's face back to normal, with skin cut from her arms used on her face, a leg ligament used in her cheek and a weight in her left eye so it could blink in time with the right.
It is a puzzle that isn't complete, but Nicky said she could deal with that.
"Before I was determined to get my smile back. Now I just want to look normal," she says.
"I don't want people looking and thinking: 'What's happened to her?'"
It has been a long road to recovery for Nicky and she is taking part in a charity appeal to prevent others from having to go through the same ordeal.
She is the Daisy Appeal's only paid part-time fundraiser, and stepping up to the challenge of raising £3.7m for state-of-the-art scanners.
The permanent patient scanning and research centre will cost £6.8m in total.
As the only employed fundraiser, it is a daunting task, but Nicky is passionate about sparing others from the anguish she has endured.
The new technology the appeal is trying to bring to Castle Hill Hospital, in Cottingham, will spot tumours faster and would have instantly diagnosed Nicky's tumour as malignant.
Instead, she needed two needle biopsies, ultrasound scans, three MRI scans and many hospital appointments.
The cyclotron scanner she hopes to bring to the hospital creates a radioactive sugar that is injected into the patient and automatically gravitates towards any tumours.
Unlike existing scanners, this can even highlight heart disease and neurological problems.
Currently, scans take place in a trailer outside Castle Hill Hospital twice a week, but Nicky said with the number of scans needed already having doubled in the past two years, many people in Hull and East Riding would not be as lucky as her.
"One-in-three people will need a scan. It could be you, a friend or family, but it will be someone you know," she said.
The Daisy Appeal aims to benefit local families, with the hope of giving a head start by catching cancer early.
Nicky, now 42, has moved on since her struggle.
Even while awaiting surgery and dealing with daily problems, Nicky, who lives in east Hull, packed her bags to fly to South Africa – and came back with a husband.
"I wanted to make the most of life and travelled out there to meet friends," she said.
"I was sat next to him and we chatted for 12 hours then started e-mailing afterwards."
The couple now have a son, Toby, three, and, to Nicky, the cancer seems like a distant memory.
"I want to say to people that it can work out," she said.
"My experience helps me to understand and I just feel so lucky I'm still here."
She hopes people will hear her story and join the appeal.
"I'm baring my soul for the charity, so we can save more lives," she said.
To help the Daisy Appeal, you can donate, fundraise or volunteer. To Do Something for Daisy, go to www.daisyappeal.org for ideas or e-mail nicky@daisyappeal.org
