Lucy Woollard, 44 from Redditch, was told she had just months to live after waiting over 12-months to be diagnosed with lung cancer.
It was late 2008 when Lucy Woollard first started to notice changes in her health. She initially started to get pains in her knees but, as a mum to then 18 month old Lottie, her GP put this down to her repeatedly kneeling on the floor doing nappy changes.
Then came the cough in 2009. It was persistent and niggly, but as someone who had never smoked, it wasn’t until she coughed up blood three months later that Lucy went to see her GP again.
Misdiagnosed
“The doctor believed I had acid reflux,” recalls Lucy. “Then two months went by and I started to lose a lot of weight and was exhausted all the time.
“I still wasn’t particularly worried. I just put it down to being stressed about returning to work after maternity leave and losing the baby weight.”
But in November, things took a turn. Lucy started to experience a severe pain in the left of her chest that wouldn’t go away. Fearful she was having a mild heart attack, Lucy immediately went to her doctor.
“My doctor reassured me that my heart was fine,” Lucy continues. “However, they said my left lung didn’t sound right so they referred me to A&E.”
Lucy had an x-ray which revealed a large abscess in her left lung. She was told she would need a two-week course of IV antibiotics to treat it.
However, seven weeks later and Lucy remained in hospital.
“The antibiotics weren’t resolving the abscess. I was still losing weight and my other symptoms (the cough and my painful joints) were worsening. I also developed clubbed fingers and was having regular high fevers, all of which was seen as a result of the lung abscess.”
But Lucy wasn’t convinced. Lying in her hospital bed, she googled her symptoms and lung cancer came up in the results.
Misdiagnosed again
Sharing her findings with her doctors, she was told lung cancer had been ruled out because a young life-long non-smoker, she ‘didn’t fit the profile’. One senior registrar went as far as saying “You no more have lung cancer in your body than I do”.
Lucy then went on to be tested for many other ‘weird and wonderful’ conditions. She was remotely assessed by the London School of Tropical Medicine and tested for auto-immune conditions, and even HIV.
“It was so bizarre that all of these extreme causes were considered more plausible than lung cancer. It felt like the only reason lung cancer wasn’t being investigated was because I was young and had never smoked.
“I was told repeatedly I didn’t fit the profile and the abnormal cells which showed up on my first lung biopsy were disregarded as infection.”
An eventual diagnosis
It wasn’t until the following January that Lucy’s cancer was finally diagnosed. Lucy had been readmitted to hospital after becoming increasingly unwell and having constant 40-degree fevers. The infection had spread in her lungs and Lucy was fitted with a chest drain to relieve this so surgery could be performed to remove the abscess.
Again, Lucy voiced her concerns about cancer and, finally, her fears were heard. A second biopsy was ordered which showed cancer cells inside the abscess. The following day, Lucy underwent an emergency operation where a ‘cricket ball’ sized tumour was removed from her left lung.
Post op, Lucy was diagnosed with stage 1b lung cancer and, given all her body had gone through, it was decided that no adjuvant treatment was needed.
Re-diagnosed
However, just a month later, Lucy’s symptoms returned, and her prognosis was now terminal. She was offered palliative chemotherapy to buy her a few more months with her daughter.
But remarkably, on her follow up scan, Lucy’s cancer had gone into remission.
“Everybody was stunned but no-one was particularly optimistic. I was told that it wasn’t a question of ‘if’ the cancer would return but ‘when’.”
A miraculous response to treatment
But against all odds, Lucy remains cancer free 14 years later. Now working for a leading Facilities Management company, her busy role has taken her to some amazing places such as Gibraltar, Germany and Cyprus.
She has also just returned from Italy on holiday with daughter, Lottie, who is now 17.
“It’s amazing to still be cancer free all these later and see my daughter grow up. I’m very lucky she still enjoys hanging out with me!
“But the fact remains I went through a hell that could have been avoided. The fact that I was a young non-smoker is what convinced the medics I didn’t have lung cancer.
“If lung cancer was considered earlier, before the chest drain was fitted, I likely would have been cured by the operation at stage 1b.
“Instead, I had to not only undergo brutal chemotherapy treatment but also try and come to terms with leaving my baby girl.
“I am so thankful that didn’t happen, but I know I am in the minority. That’s why we have to let go of these labels and look at what the symptoms are saying, not someone’s smoking history.”
Lucy shares story as part of our Let Go of the Labels campaign for lung cancer awareness month, which calls for us all to stop thinking about lung cancer in terms of ‘smoker’ and ‘non-smoker’.
Charity chief executive, Paula Chadwick, said: “It is vital we share stories like Lucys, not to point fingers or blame but to help educate and stop this from happening to anyone else.
“Lucy’s story is exactly why we need to let go of the labels and simply recognise that lung cancer, like other cancers, can happen to anyone whether they have smoked or not.”
If you are concerned about symptoms or would like advice about how to get the most out of your appointment, check out our blog.