I thought only unhealthy old smokers got lung cancer but I was 46, fit as a fiddle and given 5 years to live

WHEN Kerrie Mitchell found a lump just beneath her neck, she never imagined it could be lung cancer.

For at 46, the busy working mum felt as fit as a fiddle and brushed the thought of it aside because of her age.

Kerrie Mitchell, who was ‘fit as a fiddle’, was diagnosed with lung cancerCredit: Supplied

Couple at birthday party. — The mum and her husband Jimmy, from BerkshireCredit: Supplied

The truth, though, changed her life forever.

Kerrie had stage-four non-small-cell lung cancer – the most common form of the disease and the third most common cancer in the UK.

Despite the bleak diagnosis, she was able to tap into pioneering drugs that have offered hope to thousands of patients, thanks to progress in treatment options.

Now four years on, she is living life to the fullest – seeing out a “living list” of things she always wanted to do.

Her message to others is: don’t turn a blind eye to potential symptoms simply because of your age.

The businesswoman, from Bracknell, Berkshire, says: “There’s still this perception that it’s older people with a smoking history who get this.

“Until that stigma goes, people might get symptoms but not think of lung cancer.

“You just need lungs – that’s all it takes.

“I’ve spoken to women in their 30s and 40s with it.

“Some were going to the doctors with coughs and ailments and being dismissed because they were too young or didn’t have a history of smoking.”

‘Healthy’ woman riddled with cancer had bizarre first symptom

Kerrie, who has a daughter, Daisy, 18, with husband Jimmy, 53, vividly remembers the day in February 2020 when she was sitting at dinner and first felt something wasn’t right.

She says: “We’d finished eating and I just sort of lent over to Jimmy and went, ‘What’s that?’.

“I could feel a hard lump on my collarbone about an inch long on one side but not on the other. I asked Jimmy if he had one and he said, ‘No’.”

The next day, her GP couldn’t make sense of the lump either.

He referred her to an ENT consultant in Woking, Surrey, who looked down her throat with an endoscope camera and took a biopsy for testing.

Two weeks later, on February 28, she returned to get the results. She had a sixth sense the news might be bad.

I had all these thoughts: ‘Am I going to die? Am I going to see my daughter grow up, drive, get married, finish school?’

Kerrie Mitchell

“The night before the word ‘cancer’ was thrown up, I was Googling what the lump could be,” she says.

“I felt sick but I’m also quite a practical person.

“I thought, ‘Either way, I’m about to find out’. When I arrived to get the result, even the consultant’s demeanor was different.

“I thought, ‘Oh my god, why is he not really looking at me?’

“He said, ‘I’m really sorry. You’ve got lung cancer.’

“That date will be etched on my mind forever. It was a blur.

“I rang my sister, Leslie, and I can’t even remember what she said.

“The worst thing was coming home and telling Daisy. We just sat there.

“Jimmy went into panic mode. He went out and came back with wine.

“A couple of my best friends came over. The distraction was lovely.

“The worst was the waiting, because it was a Friday night and I couldn’t progress anything until Monday.”

Woman and teenage girl sitting at an outdoor cafe table. — Kerrie was terrified she wouldn’t get to watch her daughter Daisy grow upCredit: Supplied

Woman in swimsuit relaxing on a boat. — After being given fives years to live, she created a ‘living list’Credit: Supplied

Couple posing on a rooftop overlooking the ocean. — Jimmy had previously been diagnosed with blood cancerCredit: Supplied

It wasn’t the first cancer diagnosis the family had to face.

Kerrie’s mother had had bowel cancer that was caught early enough for them to operate on without the need for chemo.

Jimmy had also been diagnosed with blood cancer in 2019 – but at a level so low he didn’t need treatment.

She hoped that, although the road ahead might be gruelling, she would come out the other side.

“Then there was the other side – the unknown,” she admits.

“I had all these thoughts: ‘Am I going to die? Am I going to see Daisy grow up? Am I going to see her drive, get married, finish school?’.”

Kerrie booked to see a specialist cancer consultant and ordered a CT scan in advance of their appointment so he could give her answers as quickly as possible.

Less than six days later, she was told she had non-small-cell lung cancer and the most common type of it, called adenocarcinoma.

‘Two to five years to live’

A couple of weeks later she saw an oncologist who dished up yet more bad news.

An MRI scan revealed the cancer had spread to her brain and lymph nodes.

Kerrie recalls: “I told my oncologist, ‘Just tell me what it is you’re going to do to get rid of this.’

“She said it was non-curative which, she explained, meant, ‘We can’t cure it but we can treat it.’

“I just felt numb. I’ve never passed out, but I’m surprised I didn’t because it was that feeling when the blood just drains from all of you.”

At another appointment with her oncologist, Kerry was told she had “two to five years left”.

The senior manager for computer services company Oracle says: “I didn’t want to hear those statistics because I knew I’d just dwell on them.

“I said, ‘I’ll be done with this in nine months’.”

WHAT IS LUNG CANCER?

LUNG cancer is the most deadly common cancer in the UK.

It is considered a common cancer alongside prostate, breast and bowel, which together make up more than half of all new cases.

Around 49,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer every year and 35,000 die from it.

Just one in 10 patients survive for a decade or more after being diagnosed and lung tumours make up 21 per cent of cancer deaths in the UK but only 13 per cent of cases.

The main reason that it is so deadly is that symptoms are not obvious in the early stages.

When signs do appear they may include:

A cough that lasts three weeks or more, and may hurt
Repeated chest infections
Coughing up blood
Breathlessness
Unusual tiredness

The NHS does not routinely screen for lung cancer but is rolling out more tests to smokers and ex-smokers at high risk, in a bid to catch it earlier. Testing may involve X-rays and chest CT scans.

Smoking is the number one risk factor for lung cancer and accounts for about 70 per cent of cases.

Risk may also be higher for people who have inhaled other fumes or toxic substances at work, such as asbestos, coal smoke or silica.

In April, Kerrie’s treatment plan kicked in – a course of immunotherapy and chemotherapy.

At the same time, her oncologist referred her for palliative care.

She says: “I just thought, ‘She’s sending me off to die’, because back then I used to view palliative care as being just for end of life.

“Then the hospital rang and said it was to offer me complimentary therapies and counselling and it was nothing of the sort.

“I also had to sign the waiver to start treatment. One of the side effects included ‘death’!

“Going into the infusion suite room I thought, ‘This is awful, this is God’s waiting room’, but then I realised it was nothing like that either.”

The same month she underwent a cutting-edge procedure called CyberKnife at London’s Royal Marsden – a non-invasive, robotic radiosurgery treatment.

It zapped the tumours in her brain in one session.

Woman standing between large metal hands forming a heart shape. — Kerrie had stage-four non-small-cell lung cancerCredit: Supplied

Woman at a nighttime cancer research walk, wearing a purple shirt and pink sunglasses. — She credits Cancer Research UK for saving her lifeCredit: Supplied

Woman smiling while sailing a Hobie Cat. — She wants everyone to know that anyone can get lung cancer, whether they smoke or notCredit: Supplied

Six months later, in August 2020, Kerrie and Jimmy flew to a Greek island for a much-needed break in the sun, but Kerrie took a turn for the worse – developing severe diarrhoea.

Kerrie’s immunotherapy was attacking her healthy cells as well as her cancer cells and had caused ulcerative colitis – a long-term condition where the bowel and rectum become inflamed, which can cause diarrhoea, stomach pain and needing to poo frequently.

The doctors were forced to end her treatment programme after just eight rounds as opposed to the planned 20.

The steroids she was given to address the ulcerative colitis also gave her crippling arthritis.

Despite her gruelling treatment, Kerrie never lost her spirit.

She says: “I went on to Instagram looking for stories of hope. I figured I might find younger people going through it on social media.

“It was seeing other people’s journeys that was inspiring because lots of young people were just getting on with their lives.”

By June 2020, a first scan showed a 70 per cent reduction in her tumours.

By her third scan, in October, they had shrunk by 85 per cent.

“A scan every three months of my brain and lungs has shown no recurrence of the cancer in my brain since and the disease in my lung is stable,” she says.

If it wasn’t for Cancer Research UK, she admits her future might have looked very different.

She did smoke before the age of 39 but was told it wasn’t likely to have caused her kind of cancer.

She says: “I’m aware of how lucky I’ve been. The immunotherapy treatment I had was primarily used for melanoma and was relatively new for lung cancer.

“Had that treatment not been available to me, I’m not sure I’d be around now.

“Two years ago my oncologist said I no longer had active cancer, so I’m just getting on with life.”

Kerrie’s ‘living list’

There’s a tattoo on the back of her neck that symbolises ‘love, hope and faith’ – the mantra she lives by.

Kerrie is now seeing out a “living list” of things she’s always wanted to do.

In 2022, she and Jimmy travelled to Hawaii to celebrate her 50th – two years early in case the day never came.

In April last year, she celebrated her 50th on the actual date, jetting to Hong Kong and Thailand and having a disco-themed party in the UK.

In July, she flew to Ibiza with Daisy to celebrate her finishing her A-levels and turning 18.

And in 2025, she’s heading to Spain, followed by a trip to Australia to see her husband’s extended family.

She says: “I speak to lots of young people who are living great lives.

“The treatments have advanced a lot in recent years and a lot of the statistics about life expectancy are now out-dated.

“I still tell Daisy she needs to have grandchildren young,” she laughs. “I get pleasure in lots of little things now, as well as the big things like travel.

“I try not to delay things.”

Woman in the water holding a waterproof phone case. Boats in the background. — ‘I’m aware of how lucky I’ve been,’ says KerrieCredit: Supplied

Woman taking a selfie while on a bamboo raft on a river. — She was one of more than 49,000 people to be diagnosed with lung cancer in the UK that yearCredit: Supplied

Woman riding a jet ski. — Her mantra is now, ‘Love, hope and faith’, which she has tattooed on her neckCredit: Supplied

Kerrie’s dad Deryck died of throat cancer in lockdown aged 76 in November 2020.

She says: “Dad had this special bottle of wine that he was given when he retired. He didn’t get to drink it before he died.

“Now I’m very much the sort of person who says, ‘Light that posh candle if you want to, drink that Champagne. Just live for the moment’.”

There are around 49,200 new lung cancer cases in the UK each year -that’s more than 130 every day.

It’s the most common cause of cancer death, killing almost 35,000 people annually.

Just 10 per cent of patients survive for 10 or more years after diagnosis, research shows.

Smoking is the number one risk factor, with an estimated 86 per cent of lung cancer deaths caused by tobacco.

Your risk of dying from the disease is also around 15 times higher if you currently smoke, compared to those who have never smoked.

But the proportion of people being diagnosed with lung cancer who have never smoked is increasing, the World Health Organization has warned.

Adenocarcinoma now makes up 70 per cent of lung cancer cases among never-smokers, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Kerrie is supporting Cancer Research UK to raise awareness of the symptoms so the disease is caught as early as possible. These include:

A new or persistent cough
Getting out of breath doing things you used to do without a problem
Coughing up phlegm with blood in it
Having an ache or pain in your chest or shoulder
Recurrent chest infections
Loss of appetite
Feeling tired all the time
Unintentional weight loss

Maxine Lenza, health information manager at Cancer Research UK, says: “The majority of lung cancer cases in the UK are in people aged 50 and above, but the disease can affect people of all ages.

“Most cases are caused by smoking but it also impacts people who have never smoked.

“It’s not usually possible to know exactly what caused an individual’s lung cancer, and there’s not always a preventable cause.

“But other risk factors for the disease include exposure to second-hand smoke and air pollution.

“Symptoms of lung cancer include things like feeling short of breath, a long-lasting or changed cough, a chest infection that doesn’t get better, chest or shoulder pain, and coughing up blood.

“There are more general symptoms too, such as appetite loss, feeling tired for no reason, and losing weight without trying to.

“If you notice any of these symptoms or anything else that’s unusual for you, talk to your doctor.

“It probably won’t be cancer, but if it is, spotting it at an early stage means that treatment is more likely to be successful.”

Woman in pink hat wrapped in towel on beach after sea swim. — Her message to others is: Don’t turn a blind eye to potential symptoms simply because of your ageCredit: Supplied

Couple in Santa hats at a Christmas event. — Kerrie is trying to pack as much as she can into the time she has leftCredit: Supplied

Couple celebrating with drinks by a fireplace, with their dog. — She had immunotherapy and chemotherapyCredit: Supplied

Each year, around 460 women aged 25 to 49 are diagnosed with lung cancer in England.

Women in this age bracket make up around two per cent of all female lung cancer cases in the country, and one per cent of cases across both genders.

Maxine adds: “While we don’t have a specific statistic for women diagnosed with lung cancer and have never smoked, we do have a more general stat based on a previous analysis.

“Every year in England, around 1,700 people who have never smoked are diagnosed with lung cancer – that’s around five in every 100 lung cancer cases.”