Woman with terminal lung cancer shares five warning signs – she ignored one 'for years'

A woman with terminal stage 4 lung cancer has shared the five symptoms she noticed before being diagnosed – including one she ignored "for years."

Linda Chavez was just 34 when she found out she had Metastatic Bronchial Carcinoma, following a series of misdiagnoses. The disease has now spread to her brain and bones.

She now regularly takes to her TikTok channel, @theterminalcancershow, to share her story and update her followers on her progress. Now, in a collaboration with the channel Young Lung Cancer Is A Thing, Linda has spoken about about some of the warning signs she experienced before she was delivered the bad news.

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Persistent cough

Linda admitted she had a mild cough for a very long time before she finally grew suspicious. "I had a cough for years. I can honestly say it was years," she admitted.

"Eventually it was deeper [in my chest], it felt very painful, it felt piercing in my chest. However, definitely, please do not ignore persistent cough."

Headache

"Symptom number two was a constant headache," Linda added, admitting she would "roll out of bed and take Tylenol," a brand name for paracetamol, "every single morning" for more than nine months.

A headache isn't necessarily a symptom of lung cancer itself. However, as is the case for Linda, the disease often spreads to other parts of the body. "Cancer that spreads can cause pain, nausea, headaches or other symptoms depending on what organ is affected," Mayo Clinic reports.

Aches and pains

Similarly, cancer that has spread to the bones can cause bodily aches and pains – something Linda struggled with before she was diagnosed. "Number three symptom was pain in my bones and my body," Linda continued.

"[It was] kind of like when you stub your toe, that initial throbbing, pulsating pain."

Fatigue

"Number four, I was definitely exhausted beyond belief and out of breath. I literally had to take shallow breaths due to the pain that I was feeling every time I was inhaling or exhaling."

Johns Hopkins Medicine explains fatigue can be an early warning sign of multiple types of cancer. "Cancer uses your body's nutrients to grow and advance, so those nutrients are no longer replenishing your body. This 'nutrient theft' can make you feel extremely tired," the medical organisation writes.

Nausea

"Lastly, number five, was nausea. I was definitely very, very nauseous towards [the time I was] getting diagnosed. It was due to the brain [...] cancer." She explained a lot of the cancer on her brain has affected the right frontal lobe, which she said "controls hunger, cravings, nausea."

Nausea is particularly common in those with cancers of the abdomen, brain, central nervous system, or that have spread to the bones. According to the National Institutes of Health, nausea and vomiting is observed in between 40 and 70 percent of cancer cases.

Lung cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the UK, after breast cancer and prostate cancer. According to the NHS, more than 43,000 people are diagnosed each year.

In most instances, lung cancer will not cause any symptoms in the early stages. However, as the disease progresses, sufferers may notice a persistent cough, may cough up blood, may suffer from persistent breathlessness, have unexplained tiredness and weight loss, or suffer an ache or pain when breathing or coughing.

A GoFundMe has been set up to support Linda's treatment.