Natasha went from “highly curable” lung cancer to terminal disease within weeks. The news changed everything. Yet she now focuses on positives. Her treatment works, her tumours have shrunk and her cancer is stable. She shares her experience to offer hope to others who face the unthinkable.
Making a Choice
Natasha believes she has two options after her diagnosis. She can sit in a corner and cry, or she can make the most of every day.
She still has moments when she screams and cries. When her prognosis changed from curable to incurable, she felt as if her life had ended.
A strong sense of guilt followed. She believed she caused pain to her family. She sat in her living room watching her husband, children, parents and sister try to process the news. She felt stuck at the centre of the storm, numb and unable to help.
That guilt does not rule her life now. She refuses to live that way. Sadness and distress still come. Telling her daughters that her cancer was no longer curable remains one of the hardest moments of her life.
“The girls asked difficult questions I could not answer, but keeping the conversation open matters. As a family, we now appreciate each other more and never take anything for granted.
I now try to do one lovely thing every day and find joy in unexpected places. I focus on an ‘I get to…’ mindset. I get to walk the dogs, go to the shops and make tea. I also get to raise awareness of lung cancer and support this charity.
Finding our charity
I discovered Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation on World Cancer Day. I wanted to learn more about my lung cancer type — I’m EGFR+ — so I contacted the charity. Ellen replied and suggested I join an online support session for people with mutation-driven lung cancer.
I felt nervous before the first session, but it was a great experience. The group is patient-led and Pam facilitates. We follow a loose agenda but always talk about the issues that matter to us most.
We discuss everything from side effects and treatment worries to diet, grounding and breathing techniques. We understand each other’s fears and reassure one another in a way people without lung cancer cannot.
Some days the diagnosis still takes my breath away. I was a 49-year-old primary school teacher who ran, hiked and cycled. I never smoked and followed a mostly plant-based diet with little processed food. I ticked every low-risk box, yet this is now my reality.
But I am living with it — and Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation helped me see that. The website offers valuable information, and the patient stories and videos have given me huge reassurance.”
When you hear the words “incurable cancer”, you panic but Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation has given me hope. It has made me realise that I can live a full life with cancer.