Kayley Boda, 22, from Manchester was going through one 600-puff disposable vape a week before she was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer at age 21
Kayley Boda(Image: Kayley Boda / SWNS)
A woman who began vaping at 15 has issued a stark warning after being diagnosed with lung cancer at just 21. Kayley Boda, 22, was consuming one 600-puff vape weekly when she began coughing up a brown substance containing “grainy bits” in January 2025.
The retail worker, from Manchester, revealed that medical professionals dismissed her concerns eight times, insisting she had a chest infection, until she started coughing up blood. Medical staff then X-rayed Kayley and discovered a shadow on her lung, reassuring her they were “99% sure” it wasn’t cancer.
Nevertheless, following seven biopsies, Kayley received a lung cancer diagnosis and has since had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, alongside chemotherapy treatment. She has now spoken out to alert others about the potential risks of vaping.
Kayley said: “A few months after I switched from reusable vapes to disposable ones, I started coughing up brown, grainy mucus.
“Doctors turned me away eight times with a chest infection.
“Then I started coughing up blood, so they did an X-Ray and found a shadow on my lung.
“They told me they were 99% sure with me being so young that it wasn’t cancer, so not to worry about it.
“When I got the results back and they told me it was lung cancer, it felt so surreal.
“Before the diagnosis, I was very naïve and thought that something like this would never happen to me.
“I had surgery to remove half of my right lung, it gave me PTSD.
“I have the same dream every night, where I wake up in that hospital bed not being able to breathe, having to learn to walk again.
“After the surgery, I started chemo and I had a terrible reaction to it.
“I couldn’t lift my head up, I was throwing up blood, I was urinating blood.
“I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I lost 4kg in four days.
Kayley Boda in hospital(Image: Kayley Boda / SWNS)
“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.
“I haven’t vaped for three months, I’ve made my partner stop, I’ve made my mum stop, I’m urging all my friends to stop.
“Stay off the vapes, because they will catch up with you.”
Kayley started smoking a bit as a teen and using reusable vapes aged 15.
She only started using disposable vapes a few months before her cancer symptoms started. In November 2024, Kayley developed a rash all over her body, which doctors put down to shingles, chicken pox, or scabies.
“I got treated for all three, and nothing worked,” she said.
“It got the point where I was cutting myself from scratching so hard.”
Kayley Boda puts her cancer diagnosis down to vaping(Image: Kayley Boda / SWNS)
A few months later, she began coughing up a dark brown mucus, with grainy bits, the consistency of sugar, in it.
“At first I thought it was normal, because I vaped a lot, so I brushed it off,” she said.
When the coughing continued she went to the doctors but was told it could be scarring from pneumonia, or a chest infection.
In March 2025, Kayley then began coughing up bright red blood, and went back to the doctors, where they gave her a chest X-Ray, and told her they had found a shadow on her lower right lung.
Over the next four months, Kayley had seven biopsies, where doctors took samples of the “shadow”.
Doctors told her not to worry, but in August, when Kayley went in to get the results of the biopsy, she was told she had stage one lung cancer.
Kayley Boda began coughing up a brown substance with ‘grainy bits’ in it(Image: Kayley Boda / SWNS)
In September, Kayley had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, and the surrounding lymph nodes.
During the surgery, doctors upstaged Kayley’s cancer from stage one to stage three, after finding cancer in six surrounding lymph nodes.
Following the surgery, Kayley was unable to breathe properly and had to learn to walk again.
“I still can’t sleep on the side where my surgery was, I can’t go up and down stairs on my own, I have to have a commode in my room,” she said.
“I don’t go out with my friends anymore because I’m so embarrassed that I can’t even walk to the bottom of the road.”
Kayley is now having chemotherapy to fight the cancer found in her lymph nodes but had an awful reaction after her first round in November. She ended up back in hospital and doctors are giving time for her body to recover before she has anymore treatment.
“I’m really scared to start chemo again, I don’t want to feel how I did last time,” she said.
Kayley said that doctors were unable to give her a definitive answer on the cause of her cancer, but told her that smoking and vaping definitely didn’t help.
Since her diagnosis she has stopped and is urging others to stop too.