Women and lung cancer

Every day, 44 women in the UK will die of lung cancer. This is more than breast and ovarian cancers combined. But nobody knows…

What is more, rates in women are increasing. Now, one in every 15 women will be diagnosed with lung cancer at some point in their life and, according to a recent study, more young women will die of lung cancer this year than young men.

And yet still no one is really talking about it.

But we are

We are raising awareness about women and lung cancer. We want people to know that it is the biggest cancer killer in women.

I guess as a lady, you’re more aware of breast cancer and there’s a lot of publicity about breast cancer so that would have been more what I would have been on the lookout for than lung cancer. But lung cancer can affect anyone and, since I’ve been diagnosed with it, I’ve met a lot of young women who have lung cancer.

Jane, Living with lung cancer

We want women to be able to recognise the signs and symptoms of lung cancer as readily as they can for breast cancer, so they have the best chance to be diagnosed early when curative treatment is possible.

Help us to raise awareness and save more lives by sharing this video with your friends, family and colleagues.

Victoria’s story

In tribute to her mum, Janice, supporter Victoria Herd helped us to raise awareness of lung cancer in women by creating the Red Lipstick Selfie campaign, inviting women (and men) to wear red lipstick and post a selfie on social media.

Victoria chose red lipstick because her mum wore it constantly – from the beach to her MRI scans!

We didn’t realise how underfunded lung cancer is, or that it is the biggest killer amongst women until mum was diagnosed. So, I thought – let’s do something to help Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation – the UK’s only lung cancer charity – fund even more research and save lives of mums, daughters, grandmothers, sisters and friends.

Victoria, lung cancer campaigner