A young terminal cancer sufferer who has just three months left to live has warned others not to ignore five ailments that turned out to be telltale signs of her disease.
Linda Chavez, 35, was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer last year after doctors consistently mistook her symptoms for other, less serious conditions like allergies and sciatica.
Tragically, by the time the disease was spotted, it had reached stage four, which means that it had already spread beyond the lungs.
This included her brain, bones including those in spine, as well as tissues like her lymph nodes and adrenal gland.
Medics have told her the cancer is terminal and is likely to lead to her death within the next six months.
Now, she’s taken to Instagram and TikTok to raise awareness of seemingly innocuous symptoms that could be cancer.
Perhaps the most unusual sign was a persistent pain in her toes that felt as though she’d constantly ‘stubbed’ it.
Little did she know that this was a sign the cancer had spread from her lungs to the tiny bones in her feet.
Linda Chavez, who is based in the US, is pictured here with her husband Kyle Gregory and her two children Dean and Ryder. She was diagnosed with lung cancer at just 34.
Ms Chavez experienced the most common sign of lung cancer – a persistent cough. But she also suffered numerous less typical symptoms.
Other red flags included ‘exhaustion beyond belief’ and nausea.
‘I was definitely exhausted beyond belief,’ she said in a recent social media clip.
‘I very, very nauseous before getting diagnosed…it was due to the brain cancer, apparently a lot of (the cancer) is on 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 had a cough for years,’ she said before lightly coughing to show how mild the tickle was initially.
‘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 due to pain I was feeling every time I was inhaling or exhaling,’ she said.
‘I would wake up every single for over nine months just roll out of bed and take Tylenol (the US name for paracetamol).’
In a fresh update earlier this month she told her followers she had now lost vision in her right eye though didn’t explain the exact cause.
She also revealed she had been diagnosed with a rare cancer complication called leptomeningeal dissemination disease.
Also called leptomeningeal metastases, this is when cancer cells spread to the thin tissue layers that cover the brain and spinal cord.
It only occurs between one in 10 to one in 20 cancer patients, though it’s known to be more common among lung cancer patients.
The condition can cause a range of debilitating symptoms including numbness in the limbs, headaches, seizures, facial drooping and vomiting.
Mrs Chavez also revealed that medics had updated her prognosis, telling her she likely only had between three to six months to live.
But she remained upbeat, telling viewers, ‘it’s me so I’ll survive’ with a smile.
Her family have set up a GoFundMe to help with medical bills.
About 50,000 cases of lung cancer are diagnosed in the UK each year, making it Britain’s third most common cancer.
Only one in 10 patients diagnosed with the disease are expected to survive the decade, with almost 35,000 Brits killed by the cancer each year.
Mrs Chavez was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer which means that by the time medics discovered she had the disease it had already spread beyond the lungs. Stock image
Almost four in five cases of lung cancer are believed to be preventable, triggered by factors like smoking, workplace exposureto toxins and air pollution.
Data from cancer charity Cancer Research UK shows there has been an almost 130 per cent rise in lung cancer cases among British women and girls aged up to 24-years-old since the 90s.
While a startling increase, this is from a low base level of only 0.1 cases per 100,000 women this age.
Women in their 80s remain the single most likely female group to be diagnosed with the disease in the population, at around 340 cases per 100,000 women.
In contrast to young women, levels of lung cancer in young men have remained stable over the same period,
A new persistent cough, or a change to an established one, as well as fatigue are considered some of the main symptoms of lung cancer.
Medics have urged those with a cough that doesn’t go away after three weeks, or other potential symptoms, to book an appointment with a GP.
They say it is critical to keep this in mind during the colder months and not dismiss a new and persistent cough as a routine winter bug.
