Steven’s Story: Holding Onto His Voice Through Five Encounters with Cancer

As an actor, stage performer, and singer, Steven Bidwell’s voice is his livelihood, source of joy, and how he connects with audiences around the world. It is also something he has spent nearly three decades fighting to save. 

Since 1997, Steven has faced five occurrences of tongue cancer and precancerous disease, with effects that have lingered well beyond each round of treatment. 

“All cancers are horrible,” Steven says. “But when it’s in your mouth, because it affects your speech and how you communicate with the world, it brings so many unique struggles.” 

Tongue cancer is a rare form of head and neck cancer, accounting for less than 1% of new cancer diagnoses in the United States. Yet cases are rising, particularly among younger people, and survivors often live with long-term effects ranging from changes in speech and swallowing to altered taste and chronic dry mouth. 

For the growing population of people living with and beyond cancer, survivorship can bring its own burden: ongoing surveillance, lasting side effects from treatment, and the persistent fear of recurrence. 

A decade apart, a pattern emerges 

Steven’s first cancer came in 1997, when he was just 26 years old and working at Walt Disney World. After noticing a spot on his tongue that would not go away, he underwent a biopsy that revealed severe dysplasia, a precancerous condition sometimes referred to as stage 0 cancer.  

At the time, Steven had recently lost his mother to leukemia. This was also before the era of widespread internet access, leaving him with little information about what the diagnosis meant. 

“As a coping mechanism, I kind of stuck my head in the sand after that. It didn’t feel like real cancer since we removed it just with cauterization, even though it was one of the most painful experiences in my life up to that point,” he says. 

Still, he continued monitoring his health, and a decade later, he noticed another spot. Surgeons performed a partial glossectomy, removing a portion of his tongue. 

The recovery for the surgery this time was long and challenging. Luckily, he says, he was attending theater school in New York, where he was already taking speech classes twice a week.  

“It was actually where the foundation was built for my continuing to do speech exercises and caring for my voice,” he says. 

A new approach at Columbia 

In 2020, Steven noticed another spot on his tongue. This time, his care brought him to Columbia University/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and Scott Troob, MD, a head and neck oncologist & microvascular and facial plastic surgeon. 

Over the next several years, Steven experienced three additional recurrences, returning each time to Columbia to be treated by Dr. Troob. 

Instead of only removing the cancer, Dr. Troob twice used tissue grafts from his leg to reconstruct areas of the tongue, improving his healing and recovery.  Central to every treatment decision was preserving Steven’s ability to speak and sing. 

I've been very fortunate in terms of my speech, especially given that that’s my career.

“What I really loved about Columbia is that preemptively I met with a speech therapist so they could determine what my baseline speech was,” Steven says. “Then after the treatments we were able to determine what needed to be fixed.” 

He credits both reconstructive surgery and speech therapy with helping preserve much of the voice he feared he might lose. 

“I’ve been very fortunate in terms of my speech, especially given that that’s my career. I’m at the point where I sound 98 percent like I did before all of this,” he says. 

His fifth occurrence in 2023 proved the most difficult. While performing aboard a cruise ship, Steven noticed a lump in his neck. Testing at Columbia confirmed another recurrence involving his tongue, the floor of his mouth, and a lymph node in his neck. Within weeks, he debarked the ship, and underwent surgery at Columbia. Unlike his earlier recurrences, which were treated surgically, this time required a more aggressive approach. 

Radiation brought a new set of new conditions and challenges. Food tasted different. Water tasted like sewage. Eating became difficult and exhausting. At one point, Steven had temporarily lost the ability to speak altogether. 

“I was using an app to type and have it speak for me,” he says. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to speak again, let alone return to performing.” 

Now more than two years out from the radiation, Steven is gradually returning to booking performances and managing a new normal. 

Turning experience into advocacy 

I can give back by utilizing the skills of being an actor to bring awareness, advocate for earlier detection, and share my own experience as a patient.

Survivorship means a daily commitment to managing long-term side effects. In addition to daily speech exercises, he performs regular massages to help prevent fibrosis, maintain mobility, and to keep lymphedema at bay. Certain foods, especially alcohol and anything spicy, remain off limits. Meals take longer than they once did, and eating out often requires planning simply to allow enough time. 

By connecting with other survivors online about his cancers, Steven has seen how profoundly the disease can reshape daily life. Some struggle to speak clearly. Others withdraw from social settings because eating becomes difficult or embarrassing. Steven considers himself fortunate in comparison, particularly in retaining much of his speech and tongue function. 

“I’m part of a global community online of tongue cancer survivors,” he says. “I’ve seen the spectrum of how bad this cancer can be. But seeing that there is a path forward can be powerful, especially in the darkest moments of treatment.” 

That sense of responsibility has deepened his commitment to speaking publicly about his experience. He once considered pursuing a career in speech pathology but now sees more personal ways to contribute. “I can give back by utilizing the skills of being an actor to bring awareness, advocate for earlier detection, and share my own experience as a patient,” he says.