Left sided throat issues for a year now. (am at my wits end)

I am a almost 50 year old male and for about a year now i am having left sided sore throat issues. My symptoms are: chronic throat clearing, some scratchy itchy painful sore throat on the left side mainly when swallowing or eating hard crust food. when i clear my throat i feel that pain only on the left side throat. I have left side neckpain as well. some pressure under my left ear. I seem to have some hypertrophic lingual tonsils at the base of my tongue. I developed a technique where i can look way down my throat with a flashlight. i even see part of my epiglottis. It is how i discovered those lingual tonsils being a bit enlarged. talking for a long time also hurts that left sided spot more. when i press with my fingers on the left side of neck under my ear and around adams apple i feel a weird pain. I also often have a minty menthol cold burning feeling on that same left side of my throat.. really weird.
I have no palatine tonsils for over 45 years now but i did got some regrowth years ago there. I have no enlarged lymphnodes as i can feel, so that is a bit reassuring i think

I have been to my GP 2 times this year but he isnt concerned, yet he also stated he cant see everything (around the corner) but he feels i am worrying too much and i do not need a referal. In my country you need one to even be able to go to an ENT.

anyway i am worried sick i have developed a throat cancer somewhere down my sinus piriformis region of my throat. (hypopharynx cancer)..

My questions are:

1) How normal is it or common to have ONE sided chronic persistent sore throat when eating swallowing yawning for about a year now. (pain level 3 or 4 out of 10 at most) When i do nothing with my throat the pain is almost zero, but the symptoms never left. everyday i have this same thing for a year now..?
2) Having these symptoms for a year now, does this increase or decrease the possibilty of cancer? I mean should a benign issue not been long gone by now, or would a malignancy have put me in way more issues now? I simply do not know what to think here!
3) I read and even wrote to Fishmanpa and i know his standard reply yet what i often miss is the timeframe on this. I mean, it is not unusual to have a cancer that only gets diagnosed after more than a year or even longer having symptoms..
so although i know Cancer is an uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. It doesn't come and go nor does it stop once it starts.

my symptoms do not come and go nor do i know when it started and it did not stop.. so when is it a problem and when its not? I could really use all of your help here!

Weird. Month later. NO ONE replies or apparantly no one recognizes it or care to answer to compare stuff and so on..

I read it but can't help sorry.

So are you still experiencing the symptoms on the same level as before? Or are they gradually getting worse? I would tend to trust my GP on these matters, but I know how hard it can be to really take the reassurance to heart.

I have been suffering terrible acid reflux for about 5 days, one night ny throat was sore on right side, but for 2 days my throat is sore on the left side when I swallow but the soreness feels further down the throat if u get me, mines definitely down to acid as it started when my acid started playing up, have u had a camera down throat? What I've read gerd/acid can cause one sided throat pain which can be chronic

I still have the issue. Sometimes worse..sometimes a bit better, but never gone. Past week it is worse again. I have this for over a year now. I only see i have some hypertrophic lingual tonsils (lymphoid tissue) and geographical tongue and some thrush, or pharyngeal hyperkeratosis. (all my own assumptions by watching my throat)