For years, Theogette lived with a tumor that kept growing along her jaw until it was the size of a mango and slowly restricted her breathing and ability to eat.

The 50-year-old mother of three, from a remote village in northern Madagascar, first thought she had a toothache a decade ago. A dentist removed the tooth, but a growth then appeared in its place and continued to get larger over the following years.

The swelling spread across her jawline. Theogette said the condition left her socially isolated because people in her community thought she was contagious, and her husband later left her.

She said: “People said I was sick and contagious. They influenced my husband and he left me. I hope that, after the surgery, I can go back to the farm and be able to work and feed my kids.”

Left to raise three children on her own, Theogette said she still had to work.

She said: “I [had] to go to the farm to be able to feed my kids, although the swelling hurt when I worked for too long.”

She endured 10 years of pain, isolation and stigma from people in her community, who did not “want me to come close to them,” she said.

In early 2024, Theogette learned that Mercy Ships was opening a hospital ship in Toamasina, Madagascar, several hundred miles from her home in the country’s northwest.

Her nephew Ronaldo, a medical student, had heard about the charity and called her.

Ronaldo said: “I got on the phone and called her to come here because I knew they could treat her.”

Theogette then traveled for three days to reach the Africa Mercy by canoe, ferry and a Mercy Ships vehicle.

Once she arrived, she was welcomed at the charity’s HOPE Center by volunteers. Dietitian Janet Stucky described her as undernourished and underweight.

Anesthesia provider Erik Andersen said the tumor was “benign, slow growing but with the ability to grow to an enormous size, compromising the patient’s quality of life, their airway, and their ability to eat food.”

In Madagascar, only 20 percent of the population has access to surgical services and for 95 percent of the population, the cost of surgery would lead to financial ruin, according to Mercy Ships.

Theogette had surgery on June 19, 2024, to remove the tumor. The operation lasted three hours and was successful.

Operating Room Clinical Supervisor Ali Herbert, from Gloucestershire, said: “There was this incredible moment when Theogette looked in the mirror and put her hand up to her face.

“Then she realized that the tumor wasn’t there anymore and her hand could move much closer to her face again. It’s a precious time seeing the patient afterwards, able to gain weight again and return to their families.”

After weeks of recovery, Theogette was discharged and returned to her family, tumor free for the first time in a decade.

Royal London Hospital maxillofacial head and neck surgeon Dr Leo Cheng, who performed the surgery on board, said: “Theogette’s tumor not only affected her appearance, but her function of speech, communication, chewing, swallowing and breathing were all affected. If it were not for Mercy Ships, Theogette could have died by slow suffocation as her oxygen supply would have slowly turned off – an awful way to die.”

Read more from Talker News.