Woman diagnosed with terminal cancer at 34 reveals the five warning signs she never wanted to ignore
A young terminal cancer patient given just three months to live has warned others not to ignore five ailments that turned out to be telltale signs of her illness.
Linda Chavez, 35, was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer last year after doctors consistently mistook her symptoms for other, less serious conditions such as allergies and sciatica.
Tragically, by the time the disease was noticed, it had reached stage four, meaning the disease had already spread beyond the lungs.
This included her brain, bones, including those in the spine, as well as tissues such as her lymph nodes and adrenal gland.
Doctors have told her the cancer is terminal and will likely kill her within six months.
Now she’s taking to Instagram and TikTok to raise awareness of seemingly harmless symptoms that could be cancer.
Perhaps the most unusual sign was a persistent pain in her toes, which felt as if she had continually ‘stubbed’ them.
Little did she know, this was a sign that the cancer had spread from her lungs to the small bones in her feet.
Linda Chavez, who lives in the US, is pictured here with her husband Kyle Gregory and her two children Dean and Ryder. When she was just 34, she was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Ms. Chavez experienced the most common sign of lung cancer: a persistent cough. But she also suffered from many less typical symptoms.
Other warning signs included ‘incredible exhaustion’ and nausea.
“I was absolutely exhausted beyond belief,” she said in a recent social media clip.
“I was very, very nauseous before I was diagnosed… it was from the brain cancer, apparently a lot of the cancer is in my right frontal lobe, which controls hunger, cravings, nausea and all that.”
But before all these signs came a common symptom of lung cancer that is often mistaken for a winter virus.
“I’ve been coughing for years,” she said before coughing lightly to show how mild the tickle was at first.
‘Eventually it was deeper, it felt very painful and it felt piercing in my chest. Please do not ignore a persistent cough.”
Eventually the cough affected her breathing. “I literally had to take shallow breaths because of the pain I felt every time I breathed in or out,” she said.
“I woke up every time for nine months, just rolled out of bed and took Tylenol (the American name for acetaminophen).”
In a new update earlier this month, she told her followers that she had now lost the sight in her right eye, but did not explain the exact cause.
She also revealed that she had been diagnosed with a rare cancer complication called leptomeningeal spreading disease.
Also called leptomeningeal metastases, this is when cancer cells spread to the thin layers of tissue that cover the brain and spinal cord.
It only affects one in ten to one in twenty cancer patients, although it is known to be more common in lung cancer patients.
The condition can cause a range of debilitating symptoms, including numbness in the extremities, headaches, seizures, facial drooping and vomiting.
Ms Chavez also revealed that doctors had revised her prognosis and told her she probably only had three to six months to live.
But she remained optimistic, telling viewers with a smile: “It’s me, so I’ll survive.”
Her family has one GoFundMe to help with medical bills.
Around 50,000 cases of lung cancer are diagnosed in Britain every year, making it the third most common form of cancer in Britain.
Only one in ten patients diagnosed with the disease are expected to survive this decade, with almost 35,000 Britons dying from the cancer every year.
Ms. Chavez was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, meaning that by the time doctors discovered she had the disease, it had already spread beyond the lungs. Stock image
Nearly four in five cases of lung cancer are believed to be preventable, caused by factors such as smoking, exposure to workplace toxins and air pollution.
Data from cancer charity Cancer Research UK shows that the number of lung cancer cases among British women and girls aged up to 24 has risen by almost 130 percent since the 1990s.
While this is a surprising increase, it comes from a low base level of just 0.1 cases per 100,000 women at this age.
Women over 80 remain the female group most likely to be diagnosed with the disease, with around 340 cases per 100,000 women.
In contrast to young women, lung cancer rates in young men have remained stable over the same period.
A new persistent cough, or a change to an existing cough, as well as fatigue are considered some of the main symptoms of lung cancer.
Medics have urged people with a cough that does not go away after three weeks, or other possible symptoms, to make an appointment with a GP.
They say it’s crucial to keep this in mind during the colder months and not dismiss a new and persistent cough as a routine winter bug.