A mother of-three has revealed the unlikely symptoms of her deadly lung cancer — which didn’t include a cough.
Melanie Erwin, 57, from London, believed she was suffering Long Covid, as her main sign something was wrong was terrible fatigue.
The vegetarian yoga enthusiast, who has never smoked, visited her GP towards the end of 2020, who referred Ms Erwin for an X-ray.
Devastatingly, the scans revealed a ‘mass’ in her left lung, which was later found to be non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) — the most common type of the disease.
Despite being treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, another growth was discovered in March 2024, which indicated the disease had returned. Doctors concluded her disease was stage 4 and incurable.
Lung cancer is the UK’s biggest cancer killer, according to the Lung Cancer Coalition, claiming more than 35,000 lives every year.
Around a quarter of those diagnosed with the disease every year are non-smokers.
‘People tend to be very surprised when I tell them what type of cancer I have,’ Ms Erwin told The Mirror. ‘They look at me and my very healthy lifestyle, having never smoked and they can’t understand how I have this disease.’
Melanie Erwin, 57, from London , pictured with her partner Sarah, 39, believed she was suffering Long Covid, as her main sign something was wrong was terrible fatigue
The vegetarian yoga enthusiast, who has never smoked, visited her GP towards the end of 2020, who referred Ms Erwin for an X-ray, but she was later diagnosed with lung cancer
Ms Erwin said she believes that having Covid ‘saved her life’ and she is grateful her GP sent for an X-ray.
But it wasn’t long before the disease became a problem again.
In April 2022, several tiny nodules were spotted in her right lung during routine scans — but they were too small for a biopsy to check if they were cancerous.
It wasn’t until March this year that the nodules grew big enough for a biopsy to be performed, and it was revealed that her disease was at the most advanced stage.
Ms Erwin was diagnosed with a specific mutation called EGFR positive, which affects about 10 to 15 per cent of the 39,000 people diagnosed with lung cancer in the UK.
While many assume those with lung cancer are smokers, this strain is more common in people who have never smoked, and also affects a higher proportion of people in Asian countries.
The symptoms are similar to other types of lung cancer and can cause chest pain, weight loss, shortness of breath, fatigue and a cough.
Lung cancer in never-smokers is the eighth most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the UK with more deaths each year from never-smoking lung cancer than from ovarian cancer, cervical cancer or leukaemia, according to EGFR UK.
Ms Erwin is now taking daily medication which is designed to inhibit the growth of tumour cells
The diagnosis came as a ‘shock’ to Ms Erwin who assumed the news was a ‘death sentence’.
However, she is now taking daily medication that is designed to inhibit the growth of tumour cells.
Speaking about the drug which has only been available in the UK for a few years she said: ‘There’ll come a point when it stops working, because my cancer cells will get wise to it and my hope is that by then another drug will be available.
‘My goal is to live with stage 4 lung cancer and eventually die with it, not of it.’
Alongside her medication she lives a healthy lifestyle, avoiding sugar, meat and alcohol.
Ms Erwin has also started writing about her experience online, which she confesses has been very ‘therapeutic’.
But she stresses that she is ‘proof’ that ‘anyone with lungs’ can get lung cancer, irrespective of your age or lifestyle.
Although people who have never smoked can develop the condition, most cases of lung cancer are caused by smokers. The habit is linked to more than six in 10 lung cancer cases in the UK, according to Cancer Research UK.
