Woman given just weeks to live at 22 says symptoms ‘started a few months’ after she started using vapes — ‘They will catch up with you’

"The oncologist said this is so rare, and usually something they see in patients that are 80 years old," she said.

The young woman's diagnosis came after medical professionals dismissed her concerns on eight separate occasions, initially attributing her symptoms to a chest infection before the true nature of her condition was discovered.

Ms Boda's vaping habit began during her teenage years when she started with reusable devices at 15, having also experimented briefly with cigarettes.

She subsequently switched to disposable vapes just months before her symptoms first emerged in November 2024.

At the height of her use, she was consuming approximately 600 puffs per week from a single device.

Her initial warning signs included an unexplained rash covering her entire body, which physicians variously attributed to shingles, chickenpox, or scabies.

"I got treated for all three, and nothing worked," she said. "It got to the point where I was cutting myself from scratching so hard."

By January 2025, she began expelling dark brown mucus containing grainy particles resembling sugar.

"At first I thought it was normal, because I vaped a lot, so I brushed it off," she said.

When Miss Boda's coughing persisted, she sought medical attention repeatedly but was turned away on eight occasions with diagnoses of chest infection or potential scarring from pneumonia.

"Doctors turned me away eight times with a chest infection," she said. "Then I started coughing up blood, so they did an X-ray and found a shadow on my lung."

The discovery prompted an extensive four-month investigation involving seven separate biopsies to examine the suspicious mass.

"They told me they were 99 per cent sure with me being so young that it wasn't cancer, so not to worry about it," she said.

When the results confirmed lung cancer, surgeons removed the lower lobe of her right lung along with the surrounding lymph nodes.

During the procedure, her diagnosis was upgraded from stage one to stage three after cancer was detected in six lymph nodes.

The chemotherapy treatment that followed proved exceptionally difficult for Miss Boda, leaving her unable to lift her head and causing her to vomit and urinate blood whilst losing 4kg in just four days.

"I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep," she said.

Following surgery, she struggled to breathe properly and was forced to relearn how to walk. Kayley eventually received welcome news in February when doctors declared her cancer-free, but the relief proved short-lived.

In March, severe chest pains led to the discovery of a pleural effusion, requiring nearly two litres of fluid to be drained from her lungs.

On April 9, testing revealed the cancer had returned to the pleural lining, prompting the terminal prognosis.

"No words can describe how I feel. I'm 22, this isn't meant to happen to somebody my age," she said.

Miss Boda attributes her illness to vaping, noting her symptoms emerged shortly after switching to disposable devices and that her family has no history of lung cancer. Whilst doctors could not definitively confirm the cause, they told her that smoking and vaping certainly did not help her condition.

She has now abstained from vaping for three months and has persuaded both her partner and mother to abandon the habit.

"I've put the cancer down to vaping because my symptoms started a few months after I started disposable vapes, and there's no lung cancer in my family," she said.

Kayley is currently seeking to raise £20,000 for treatment in Germany in hopes of extending her life.

"Stay off the vapes, because they will catch up with you," she warned.