Surgery removed Doreen's tumour but left her unable to speak. Now she finds a "voice" through her artwork - and Vivienne Westwood is a fan!

What started as a sore throat a decade ago led to a diagnosis of throat cancer. "I went to the doctor and was told it was nothing, but during a family meal I suddenly started choking. I went to hospital, they took a video x-ray of me swallowing and discovered a large tumour," says Doreen.

When she learned that surgery would mean losing her voice box, she spoke her last words to her loved ones before undergoing a huge operation - a pharyngo-laryngo-esophagectomy - moving her stomach to her neck.

The surgery, which removed her pharynx, oesophagus and larynx, took an entire day, followed by a four-month stay in hospital and two weeks in a hospice.

"It's a very rare operation; my surgeon told me less than 200 people in the country have had it," says Doreen, from Calderdale. "My stomach was moved to my neck, with no valve, so I can't bend and I sleep sitting up. My internal plumbing is "bloody awful" as one young doctor said, (he knew I liked a joke)."

During the operation Doreen's larynx was separated from the windpipe which was brought forward and stitched at the end, forming a hole in her neck which she breathes through. She suffers digestive problems and has her stomach regularly dilated, to enable food to pass through.

Because she can no longer speak, Doreen, 78, communicates by writing. She always has a notepad and pen with her.

"When you're disabled you don't slot into the world around you fully, as people tend to treat you differently," she says. "I can't just write down what's wrong with me, and drop it into a casual conversation, so I tend not to talk about my health.

"People often don't understand why I can't speak. Even my speech therapist said, in front of everyone at a meeting: 'Have you thought about trying oesophageal speech?' I could've smacked her. I don't have an oesophagus, or the air to make speech. I just sat there. By the time I'd written down what I wanted to say, the moment would've passed.

"People are generally kind though. Strangers on the bus pass me paper and pens."

When Doreen was recovering from her operation, she found solace in art. A self-taught artist, she has experimented with arts and crafts since childhood. "My dad had an artistic streak, I liked watching him make things. From being about six, when I'd sit on the doorstep knitting and sewing outfits for my dolls, I've taken on new projects - pottery, painting, making clothes, cards, dolls, rugs, miniatures and renovating furniture," she says. "After my operation I filled my home with paintings. I wanted it bursting with colour and happiness."

Among Doreen's creations is a beautiful dolls-house, which she designed, made and furnished in meticulous detail, right down to a mouse on the stone-flagged kitchen floor. She made the period furniture, sash windows, tiny ornaments, newspapers, books and kitchen utensils, a rocking horse created from lollipop sticks, parquet flooring made out of her father's old marquetry veneers, and dolls house people from men's silk ties.

Doreen and husband Ivan have three children and five grandchildren. "I have a lovely family and friends but in my darkest times art has given me a purpose to wake up each day," she says. "Art and maths were always my two main loves so I like to tackle unusual art. I can spend weeks working out how to do something, because I'm self-taught I like to find my own solutions.

"I call my house a recycled home because I'm always moving onto new projects. At the moment I love Danish teak 1960s sideboards, a while ago it was oak sideboards which I stripped and bleached."

Doreen has had paintings exhibited, and museums and shops have displayed her work. She even impressed fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. "I sent her one of my dolls, which she put in her studio, and she has since sent me parcels of offcuts. Last Christmas I was having trouble finding long furry material for my deer tails, so she sent me some. As a thank you, I sent her a doll dressed in some material she'd given me."

Doreen's current passion is tapestry animals. Brightly-coloured deer, rabbit and hare figurines, covered in her tapestries, are dotted around her home, along with 'stags' heads' mounted on the wall. "I had a large brain tumour five years before I had throat cancer, which involved a 12-hour operation," says Doreen. "While I was recovering I did lots of tapestries which I made into cushions. Some ended up in the loft, I recently came across them and 'recycled' them into my tapestry animals - giving a contemporary twist to an old craft. I use fibreglass animal figures imported from America. Making them gives me such joy and they bring a smile to everyone who sees them.

"Like me, my animals can't speak, but I feel they talk to me."

Having survived life-threatening cancer, twice, Doreen embraces each new day - and each new art project.

"When I was ill my dear schoolfriend, Margaret Wilson, who lives in Low Moor, sent me a fridge magnet bearing the words: 'Life is all about how you handle Plan B'," she smiles. "That is how I approach life."by Emma Clayton DOREEN Savage's home is filled with her artwork, from colourful abstract paintings to charming tapestry animal figures. Art, she says, has "filled a much-needed place" in her life, following a traumatic illness and life-saving surgery.

What started as a sore throat a decade ago led to a diagnosis of throat cancer. "I went to the doctor and was told it was nothing, but during a family meal I suddenly started choking. I went to hospital, they took a video x-ray of me swallowing and discovered a large tumour," says Doreen.

When she learned that surgery would mean losing her voice box, she spoke her last words to her loved ones before undergoing a huge operation - a pharyngo-laryngo-esophagectomy - moving her stomach to her neck.

The surgery, which removed her pharynx, oesophagus and larynx, took an entire day, followed by a four-month stay in hospital and two weeks in a hospice.

"It's a very rare operation; my surgeon told me less than 200 people in the country have had it," says Doreen, from Calderdale. "My stomach was moved to my neck, with no valve, so I can't bend and I sleep sitting up. My internal plumbing is "bloody awful" as one young doctor said, (he knew I liked a joke)."

During the operation Doreen's larynx was separated from the windpipe which was brought forward and stitched at the end, forming a hole in her neck which she breathes through. She suffers digestive problems and has her stomach regularly dilated, to enable food to pass through.

Because she can no longer speak, Doreen, 78, communicates by writing. She always has a notepad and pen with her.

"When you're disabled you don't slot into the world around you fully, as people tend to treat you differently," she says. "I can't just write down what's wrong with me, and drop it into a casual conversation, so I tend not to talk about my health.

"People often don't understand why I can't speak. Even my speech therapist said, in front of everyone at a meeting: 'Have you thought about trying oesophageal speech?' I could've smacked her. I don't have an oesophagus, or the air to make speech. I just sat there. By the time I'd written down what I wanted to say, the moment would've passed.

"People are generally kind though. Strangers on the bus pass me paper and pens."

When Doreen was recovering from her operation, she found solace in art. A self-taught artist, she has experimented with arts and crafts since childhood. "My dad had an artistic streak, I liked watching him make things. From being about six, when I'd sit on the doorstep knitting and sewing outfits for my dolls, I've taken on new projects - pottery, painting, making clothes, cards, dolls, rugs, miniatures and renovating furniture," she says. "After my operation I filled my home with paintings. I wanted it bursting with colour and happiness."

Among Doreen's creations is a beautiful dolls-house, which she designed, made and furnished in meticulous detail, right down to a mouse on the stone-flagged kitchen floor. She made the period furniture, sash windows, tiny ornaments, newspapers, books and kitchen utensils, a rocking horse created from lollipop sticks, parquet flooring made out of her father's old marquetry veneers, and dolls house people from men's silk ties.

Doreen and husband Ivan have three children and five grandchildren. "I have a lovely family and friends but in my darkest times art has given me a purpose to wake up each day," she says. "Art and maths were always my two main loves so I like to tackle unusual art. I can spend weeks working out how to do something, because I'm self-taught I like to find my own solutions.

"I call my house a recycled home because I'm always moving onto new projects. At the moment I love Danish teak 1960s sideboards, a while ago it was oak sideboards which I stripped and bleached."

Doreen has had paintings exhibited, and museums and shops have displayed her work. She even impressed fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. "I sent her one of my dolls, which she put in her studio, and she has since sent me parcels of offcuts. Last Christmas I was having trouble finding long furry material for my deer tails, so she sent me some. As a thank you, I sent her a doll dressed in some material she'd given me."

Doreen's current passion is tapestry animals. Brightly-coloured deer, rabbit and hare figurines, covered in her tapestries, are dotted around her home, along with 'stags' heads' mounted on the wall. "I had a large brain tumour five years before I had throat cancer, which involved a 12-hour operation," says Doreen. "While I was recovering I did lots of tapestries which I made into cushions. Some ended up in the loft, I recently came across them and 'recycled' them into my tapestry animals - giving a contemporary twist to an old craft. I use fibreglass animal figures imported from America. Making them gives me such joy and they bring a smile to everyone who sees them.

"Like me, my animals can't speak, but I feel they talk to me."

Having survived life-threatening cancer, twice, Doreen embraces each new day - and each new art project.

"When I was ill my dear schoolfriend, Margaret Wilson, who lives in Low Moor, sent me a fridge magnet bearing the words: 'Life is all about how you handle Plan B'," she smiles. "That is how I approach life."