Mouth Cancer Foundation aims to save sufferers’ voices

“We want the Mouth Cancer Foundation to be the charity patients turn to when they need to save their voice,” says Philip Lewis, President of the Mouth Cancer Foundation.

He continues: “Our latest initiative is to save the voices of mouth, throat, head and neck cancer patients at risk of losing them due to surgery or treatment and give them back the power of speech.

“The Mouth Cancer Foundation will become the go-to charity for patients wishing to bank their voices through a £1500 per person Saving Voices Grant, subject to terms and conditions.”

Phil observes: “With the aid of modern technology, voice preservation enables people to speak with a voice that reflects their unique identity. Think of it as insurance against the day when a voice is lost or unavailable for whatever reason.”

The Mouth Cancer Foundation is working with voice banking platform, www.vocalid.ai, through which the user can bank their voice by recording two hours’ worth of sentences. These speech recordings can then be be used to create a personalised digital voice. The user can then type messages that are converted to speech using their own voice.

Phil adds: “All you need is a computer, headset microphone, which the charity will provide, 1,500 Sentences = two hours of recording time and someone to support and motivate you. We appreciate this will be happening at a time you may be preparing for surgery.

“Once the voice is built, it can be used on the MyVocalid app (iOS or Android version) or other compatible assistive communication apps. Our collective goal is to improve the quality of life of over 8700 mouth cancer patients in the UK and 650,000 people worldwide who are affected by all head and neck cancers.”

For more information, and to find the full terms and conditions, visit https://www.mouthcancerfoundation.org/saving-voices/