A 22-year-old woman from Manchester has been given a terminal prognosis of 18 months to live following a diagnosis of stage three lung cancer, a disease her medical team described as extraordinarily rare for someone her age.
Kayley Boda, a retail assistant, was told the condition is typically seen in patients six decades older, around 80 years of age. Her case highlights growing medical concern over the incidence of serious lung disease in young adults, alongside urgent questions about the long-term health impacts of vaping.
A Dismissed Warning and a Race Against Time
Miss Boda’s ordeal began in November 2024 with an unexplained rash covering her entire body. Medical professionals variously suggested it was 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, more alarming symptoms emerged: she began coughing up dark brown mucus containing grainy particles. “At first I thought it was normal, because I vaped a lot, so I brushed it off,” she recalled. Her persistent cough led to eight separate consultations where she was turned away with diagnoses of a chest infection or potential scarring from pneumonia.
The situation escalated in March 2025 when she started coughing up blood. An X-ray finally revealed a shadow on her lung, triggering a four-month investigation involving seven biopsies. “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. During the procedure, her diagnosis was upgraded from stage one to stage three after cancer was detected in six lymph nodes. The subsequent chemotherapy proved brutal, leaving her unable to lift her head, causing her to vomit and urinate blood, and lose 4kg in four days.
Elusive Hope and a Terminal Prognosis
A brief period of hope arrived in February 2026 when doctors declared her cancer-free, but the relief was short-lived. Severe chest pains the following month led to the discovery of a pleural effusion, requiring nearly two litres of fluid to be drained from her lungs. Testing on April 9 confirmed the cancer had returned to the pleural lining, leading to the terminal prognosis.
“No words can describe how I feel. I’m 22, this isn’t meant to happen to somebody my age,” Miss Boda said. She is now seeking to raise £20,000 for a clinical trial in Germany, where treatment costs can be prohibitive; surgery alone can range from approximately £20,000 to £40,000, with a full chemotherapy course potentially reaching £150,000.
The Vaping Link and a Rare Diagnosis for the Young
Central to her story is her history with vaping, which began at age 15 with reusable devices. She switched to disposable vapes just months before her first symptoms appeared, consuming around 600 puffs per week from a single device at the height of her use.
While her doctors could not definitively confirm vaping as the sole cause, they stated that smoking and vaping “certainly did not help her condition.” Miss Boda herself attributes her illness to the habit, noting the timing of her symptoms and a complete absence of family history of lung cancer. “I’ve put the cancer down to vaping because my symptoms started a few months after I started disposable vapes,” she said.
Her concern is underscored by research indicating that disposable e-cigarettes may emit higher concentrations of metals like lead, chromium, and nickel compared to older models, substances linked to serious respiratory and carcinogenic effects. This takes place within a UK regulatory landscape that has tightened significantly; disposable vapes were banned in June 2025 over environmental and youth usage concerns, and a new Vaping Products Duty tax was introduced in October 2026.
Public health advice, echoed by experts, maintains a clear position: while vaping is considered significantly less harmful than smoking, it is not risk-free. The standard guidance is that non-smokers, particularly the young, should not start.
Miss Boda’s diagnosis remains exceptionally unusual for her age group. Lung cancer incidence for adults aged 18-35 is low, around 1.37% in some studies. However, survival rates in the UK are higher for younger cohorts; for example, approximately one in three females aged 15-44 diagnosed with lung cancer survive for ten years or more, compared to roughly one in ten of those diagnosed between 75 and 99.
Having abstained from vaping for three months and persuaded her partner and mother to quit, Miss Boda now advocates directly to others. “Stay off the vapes, because they will catch up with you,” she warned, as she focuses her efforts on fundraising for treatment abroad.