A woman who began vaping at 15 has been told she may have just 18 months to live after being diagnosed with lung cancer at 21.
Kayley Boda, 22, said she was using around one 600-puff vape each week when she noticed something alarming in January 2025: she started coughing up a brown substance that contained “grainy bits”.
The retail assistant, from Manchester in the UK, claims she sought medical help repeatedly but was sent away eight times and told she had a chest infection. It was only after she began coughing up blood that further tests were carried out.
Kayley later underwent seven biopsies before doctors confirmed lung cancer. She has since had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, alongside a course of chemotherapy.
Although she was declared cancer-free in February 2026, she said the relief was short-lived. Two months later, she was told the disease had returned in the pleural lining, and that her prognosis is 18 months.
Now, Kayley is fundraising to access a clinical trial in Germany in the hope it will extend her life. She’s also urging others to take vaping risks seriously.
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 percent 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 naive 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.
“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.”
According to Kayley, she smoked occasionally as a teenager and began using reusable vapes at 15. She says she didn’t start using disposable vapes until a few months before her symptoms appeared. Reusable vapes have been banned in the UK since June 2025.
She also described developing a widespread rash in November 2024, which she says was variously attributed 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.”
Not long after, she noticed persistent coughing and mucus that looked dark brown and contained gritty particles, which she described as having a sugar-like texture.
“At first I thought it was normal, because I vaped a lot, so I brushed it off,” she said.
When the cough didn’t improve, she returned to her doctor and says she was told it might be scarring from pneumonia or another infection.
By March 2025, Kayley says she began coughing up bright red blood. She went back again, had a chest X-ray, and was told a “shadow” had been found on the lower part of her right lung.
Over the following four months, she underwent seven biopsies so doctors could take samples from the area.
She says she was reassured repeatedly, but in August she was told the results confirmed stage one lung cancer.
In September, she had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, along with surrounding lymph nodes.
During the operation, doctors reportedly revised the staging from stage one to stage three after finding cancer in six nearby lymph nodes.
Kayley said recovery after surgery was difficult, and she struggled with breathing and had to relearn how to walk.
After completing chemotherapy, she was told in February 2026 that there were no signs of cancer.
However, she says she soon developed severe chest pain and was diagnosed with pleural effusion, a build-up of fluid around the lungs.
Although the fluid was drained, tests reportedly showed the cancer had returned in the pleural lining, leading doctors to give her an 18-month prognosis.
“The oncologist said this is so rare, and usually something they see in patients that are 80 years old,” she said.
Kayley has said her doctors couldn’t point to one definitive cause, but that smoking and vaping wouldn’t have helped.
She says she has now stopped vaping and is encouraging others around her to do the same.
Kayley is currently aiming to raise £20,000 (around $27,000) to pursue treatment in Germany that she hopes could help prolong her life.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society on 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.