See the moment a man rebuilt his ‘elephant trunk’ nose after cancer ravaged his face

WATCH how a man whose face was ravaged by cancer has his ‘elephant nose’ reconstructed.

Peter, 74, almost lost his nose to cancer, which first appeared as a small spot on his nose.

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He underwent complex, multi-stage surgery to reconstruct his nose at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

The first phase involved using a piece of skin from Peter’s forehead, which the surgeons rejected and placed along his nose to cover the parts he had lost to skin cancer.

This left the 74-year-old with what he happily likened to an “elephant trunk.”

“It’s a little smaller than an elephant’s trunk, but it looks bizarre,” said Peter.

During the second phase, surgeons sought to make Peter’s torso look “a little more like a nose,” documented in a new series called The face doctors.

Airing on Really on Wednesdays and available on Discovery+, it follows patients undergoing life-changing surgeries and cutting-edge treatments to reconstruct their faces.

The first episode documenting Peter’s transformation airs tonight (May 15) at 9 p.m.

Before appearing on the show, Peter underwent extensive surgery to remove skin cancer from his nose.

Although the procedures were effective in combat, they left his nose altered.

This has affected the usually outgoing 74-year-old’s self-confidence and self-image.

Peter’s son Tony reflected on the change in his father, saying: “I think I’ve seen him a bit more self-conscious, so he’s been doing a lot of things at home rather than socializing and mingling outside.”

Meanwhile, Peter said he got into the habit of wearing a cap when he went out and putting it over his face.

“People are used to seeing people with casts on their limbs, but facial surgery is probably a little different, it’s pretty obvious you’ve had something done and you don’t look normal for a while,” he noted.

Plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr Ahid Abood explained the first phase of Peter’s treatment at Addenbrooke’s.

“Peter has had quite a large skin cancer removed from his nose and one way of reconstructing it is by using tissue from his forehead turned down to cover the missing part, and maintaining a blood supply from the forehead to the point where he gets it. a new supply of blood from the nose.”

With the first leg of the journey going smoothly, Dr. Abood and his team began reconstructing Peter’s “torso” five weeks later.

“There is a middle tube of skin that runs from the forehead to the nose, now that the tip has picked up the blood supply from the nose, I will remove the middle segment and contour it to look more like the nose should,” Dr. Abood explained before the procedure.

Video from the operating table shows the surgeon making repeated incisions into the “torso” to cut away excess skin and make it more similar to a nose.

The first thing Peter did when he recovered from the anesthesia was ask for a mirror.

“I was surprised by how clean everything looked!” he said, giving the team a thumbs up.

Six weeks after life-changing surgery to reconstruct his nose, Peter returned to Addenbrooke’s for a check-up with a spring in your step.

Joking that he was “no oil painting before”, the 74-year-old man seems to be extroverted again and his joy is palpable.

Peter had a strange side effect after the surgery when hair began to sprout from his newly reconstructed nose – after all, it was made from his scalp.

“Ironically, the hair that goes through there is much darker than the hair on most of my head!” Peter laughed.

“It’s a cruel twist!”

But he told Dr Abood: “I’m very pleased with it and it works. I can smell it, I can blow it.

“To be honest, my appearance now exceeds my expectations. I’m completely amazed at what you’ve achieved.”

Peter also took the opportunity to remind people to use plenty of sunscreen to protect themselves from skin cancer.

He confessed that he had talked so much now that he sounded like “an Australian cricketer”.

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