Woman, 68, Is Told By Doctor Her Back Pain Was ‘A Pinched Nerve:’ It Turned Out To Be Cancer

However, during a family trip in January of last year, Helen became extremely sick; doctors thought she was suffering from a pulmonary embolism because she was coughing blood. But the real battle began a few days later when Helen was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.

"There were no real symptoms apart from her back pain, which was getting worse and worse," Helen's son, Alex, 33, told the Liverpool Echo of his mother's condition. "I sometimes look back and think maybe there were more signs, but the doctors said it was just a trapped nerve so we thought she was fine."

Later, after Helen had successfully completed treatment, she and her family would later learn that by the time she was diagnosed, the lung cancer had spread to other parts of her body, including her brain. Helen had also been diagnosed with breast cancer years prior, but it was successfully treated.

"She just said the back pain was because she was old," Alex said. "It really escalated quickly after she was diagnosed though. It spread to the brain and you could tell she was very confused."

"When she was diagnosed it felt like a punch in the stomach," he added. "With cancer, you try and cling onto a bit of hope, but sadly, we didn't have that."

Treatment for Stage 4 Lung Cancer

Alex and his sister, Jess, moved their mother into hospice care once they learned her cancer had spread. And she passed away just a few days later.

"I don't know what I expected from a hospice, but once you walk into one it's just a place of peace," Alex said. "You feel at ease straight away and we knew we made the right decision to move mum there."

Today (April 11) would've been Helen's 70th birthday, so Alex and Jess are sharing their mother's story to remember her and raise awareness for lung cancer.

"She was a very straight-talking woman and extremely clever as well," Alex said of his mother. "She was very elegant and kind and she always went out of her way to make others happy. She loved looking after you and cooking for you."

"She was just a good kind-hearted woman."

Lung Cancer Causes

It's unclear what caused Helen's lung cancer, but it should be noted that smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer in the United States.

However, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 10% to 20% of lung cancers, or 20,000 to 40,000 lung cancers each year, happen in people who never smoked or smoked fewer than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime.

The tobacco in cigarettes is a carcinogen that causes mutations in lung cells and enables the growth of cancer. In fact, about 80% of lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking, according to the American Cancer Society. Despite this, there are still a handful of other environmental factors that can cause the disease.

Take it From a Guy Who Looks at Diseased Lungs Every Day Stop Smoking

The leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers is exposure to radon gas, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It accounts for about 21,000 deaths from lung cancer each year. But because radon cannot be seen or smelled, the only way to know whether it's accumulating in your home is to test for it.

Another big cause of lung cancer in non-smokers is simply breathing in secondhand smoke. That amounts to about 7,000 deaths from lung cancer each year. Exposure to other harmful chemicals like asbestos may also cause lung cancer. Asbestos was commonly used for insulation, roofing and in various paints and plastics before it was banned by the EPA in 1989.

People may also be at a higher risk of developing lung cancer if they're constantly exposed to air pollution, or if they have a family history of lung cancer.

New research also suggests that people infected with HIV have a higher risk of developing lung cancer compared to the general population. HIV weakens the immune system and reduces the body's ability to fight off other viral infections that may cause various cancers.

Second Cancer

Often, a cancer survivor's worst fear is facing the disease again whether that be a recurrence or an entire second cancer. (If cancer is found after treatment, and after a period of time when the cancer couldn't be detected, it's called a cancer recurrence, according to ACS.)

Some cancer warriors will live cancer-free for the rest of their lives after treatment, but for others, like Helen, it's possible to get a new, second cancer. (If you recall from earlier, Helen was diagnosed with and beat breast cancer years before being diagnosed with her second cancer, lung cancer.) According to ACS, it's important for all cancer survivors to know that it's possible to develop an entirely new cancer, even after surviving the first.

That sounds scary. What's a "second cancer"?

A second cancer is different from a cancer recurrence, which is when the same type of cancer a person had before comes back.

A second cancer is a new cancer that's unrelated to any previous cancer diagnosis; it's a completely different type of cancer. Sometimes the new cancer is in the same organ or area of the body as the first cancer, or a second cancer may develop in another organ or tissue.

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