About Suzie

Suzie was IMPRESSeD’s first Patient Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) contributor. Her role involved co-designing the project to ensure the research would address patients’ most important research priorities.

Suzie died from an unrelated health condition before the portraits were commissioned. Her family were eager for her pivotal contribution to be acknowledged and for her portraits to be included in I’m Still Me.

Suzie’s portraits and narrative explain her legacy of being a positive driving force who made a difference to people going through similar treatment. Her story is told by Brian, her partner of more than 40 years, with contributions from her sister, Jillian.

In 2015, Suzie felt a tiny lump on her nose. Her doctor thought it was a blocked tear duct and referred her on. The moment the specialist looked at her, they said, “it’s not a blocked tear duct. We need to do scans and tests to determine what it is”.

She was diagnosed with a rare cancer, and the only way to cure it was through surgery. It spread to her eye, so the surgeons removed her eye and part of her nose. Suzie was naturally anxious prior to the surgery. Head and neck cancer isn’t publicised like women’s breast cancer. The awareness just isn’t there.

However, after surgery, Suzie’s positive attitude returned quickly. She just got on with things and was back working as a passenger assistant for disabled children within three months.

Six or seven months after her surgery, Suzie got her first prosthesis when her wound had healed. That’s when she met Paul, the Maxillofacial Prosthetist. He and Suzie were perfectionists, trying to get her prosthesis right.

Her first prosthesis made her look like she had a slight squint and we were going back and forth whilst Paul tried to correct it. She kept asking him to add longer eyelashes and eyebrows. She loved her makeup. Even when she was in labour, she had lipstick on!

“This is what I am and this is what I look like.”

Suzie always wore her prosthesis and very much regarded it as an important part of her. At work, she wore glasses as she didn’t want to risk losing it and she didn’t want anybody to see her without it, especially the children we were taking to school.

Early on, she asked me, “Do you mind if I sleep without my prosthesis?” I didn’t mind but when she went to the bathroom, she saw herself without it for the first time and it set her confidence back.

With time and support from the family she said, “This is what I am and this is what I look like”. She didn’t hide her prosthesis, it became part of her, and people loved her for who she was.

Her early prosthesis was made using an impression. The standard mould was made by putting gauze in the back of the eye socket and then silicone material on top. She found this uncomfortable and unpleasant. It seemed like the impression was difficult to remove the first time Paul tried to get it out.

Based on these experiences, Suzie guided the IMPRESSeD researchers to identify key steps for improvement in the manufacturing processes. She wanted to help others avoid facial impressions, get better outcomes with their prostheses, and speed up the processes. She was always like that, wanting to help everybody else, above helping herself.

“Stick with it. Things get better.”

Suzie passed away four years ago. She got a chest infection, and the doctors said it was pneumonia. That was heartbreaking since she’d come to the end of her cancer treatment journey.

If somebody had asked Suzie to help them when she was ill, she would have done it. She always wanted to make a difference to people’s lives and to help them. She would have told people in a similar situation, “Stick with it. Things get better”.

By sharing her lived experiences and helping the research team explore new ways of making facial prostheses, Suzie will have made a difference to future patients.

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