“After waiting more than 12 months for a diagnosis, Lucy Woollard, 44, from Redditch, was told she had just months to live.”
It was late 2008 when Lucy Woollard first started to notice changes in her health. She developed knee pain, which her GP attributed to repeatedly kneeling on the floor while caring for her 18-month-old daughter, Lottie.
Then came the cough in 2009. “It was persistent and niggly. But as a lifelong non-smoker, Lucy didn’t return to her GP until she coughed up blood three months later.”
Misdiagnosed
“The doctor believed I had acid reflux,” recalls Lucy.
“I wasn’t especially concerned. I assumed it was stress from 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 observed 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
“When she shared her findings, doctors ruled out lung cancer, telling her she ‘didn’t fit the profile’ because she was young and had never smoked.” One senior registrar even told her, “You no more have lung cancer in your body than I do.”
“Instead of investigating lung cancer, doctors sent Lucy for tests for a series of ‘weird and wonderful’ conditions, from autoimmune diseases to HIV.”
“It was surreal. “All of these extreme explanations seemed more plausible to doctors than lung cancer, simply because I was young and had never smoked.”
“Doctors repeatedly told me I didn’t fit the profile and dismissed the abnormal cells in my first lung biopsy as infection.”
An eventual diagnosis
“Lucy’s cancer went undiagnosed until the following January. By then, she had been readmitted to hospital, increasingly unwell, with constant 40-degree fevers.”
The infection had spread through her lungs, and doctors fitted a chest drain to relieve the pressure so they could operate to remove the abscess.
Lucy raised her concerns about cancer again and, this time, doctors listened. They ordered a second biopsy, which revealed cancer cells inside the abscess.
The following day, Lucy underwent emergency surgery to remove a ‘cricket ball’ sized tumour from her left lung.
“After surgery, doctors diagnosed Lucy with stage 1b lung cancer and decided that, given everything her body had been through, she did not need adjuvant treatment.”
Re-diagnosed
However, just a month later, Lucy’s symptoms returned, and her prognosis was now terminal. “She was offered palliative chemotherapy in the hope of buying a few more months with her daughter.”
But remarkably, on her follow up scan, Lucy’s cancer had gone into remission.
“Everyone was stunned, but there was little hope.” Doctors told me 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 truth is, I went through 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 doctors had considered lung cancer earlier, before fitting the chest drain, surgery at stage 1b could likely have cured me.”
“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.”
Let go of the labels
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.