Kayley Boda, 22, from Manchester has now been told she has just 18 months to live
Kayley Boda in hospital(Image: Kayley Boda / SWNS)
A woman who began vaping at 15 has been told she has 18 months to live – following a lung cancer diagnosis at 21. Kayley Boda, 22, was getting through one 600-puff vape weekly when she started coughing up a brown substance containing “grainy bits” in January 2025.
The retail assistant, from Manchester, said medical professionals dismissed her eight times, telling her she had a chest infection, until she began coughing up blood. Following seven biopsies, Kayley received a lung cancer diagnosis and has had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, alongside chemotherapy treatment.
In February 2026, she received the all clear, but two months later, doctors revealed the cancer had returned in the pleural lining, and told her she has just 18 months to live. Kayley is now fundraising to cover a clinical trial in Germany, aimed at extending her life, and has issued a stark warning for others about the risks associated with vaping.
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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 and 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.
“When I got the all clear it felt amazing, but just two months later I was told the cancer had come back, and I have 18 months to live.
“No words can describe how I feel, I’m 22, this isn’t meant to happen to somebody my age.
“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.
Kayley Boda(Image: Kayley Boda / SWNS)
“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.”
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.
Kayley Boda was diagnosed with lung cancer at just 21, after she started vaping aged 15(Image: Kayley Boda / SWNS)
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. In September, Kayley had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, and the surrounding lymph nodes.
Kayley Boda in hospital(Image: Kayley Boda / SWNS)
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.
After finishing chemotherapy in February 2026, Kayley was given the all clear, leaving her feel elated. However, a month later, she began experiencing extreme chest pains and was told by doctors she had a pleural effusion, which is a build-up of fluid on the lungs.
She got the fluid removed, but when doctors tested it, they discovered her cancer had returned to the pleural lining of her lungs, giving her 18 months to live.
Kayley Boda has now been told she has just 18 months left to live by doctors(Image: Kayley Boda / SWNS)
“The oncologist said this is so rare, and usually something they see in patients that are 80 years old,” 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.
Kayley is now hoping to raise £20,000 for treatment in Germany to try and prolong her life.
You can donate via her GoFundMe page: https://gofund.me/ebfc95bf3