Rhianna Benson
A woman who started vaping at 15 has revealed one eerie side effect she experienced before being told she had 18 months to live.
Kayley Boda was diagnosed with lung cancer last year, aged 21, which doctors put down to her dependence on e-cigarettes.
By the retail assistant's own admission, she'd rattled through a single 600-puff device every week since her teenage years, gradually moving from reusable vapes to single-use.
It wasn't until she began coughing up an unusual brown substance, littered with 'grainy bits', however, that she suspected her health was faltering.
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During a number of GP appointments early last year, the now 22-year-old claims she was repeatedly turned away. She recalls doctors and nurses misdiagnosing her with chest infections and pneumonia.
That was, until one day, Boda began coughing up blood.
Seven biopsies and multiple scans later, medics discovered a dark shadow on her lung.
The Manchester local was subsequently diagnosed with lung cancer.
It was also then that she realised a rash she'd suddenly experienced in the months prior, which she'd previously put down to shingles, chicken pox, or scabies, was also an indicator of poor health.
"A few months after I switched from reusable vapes to disposable ones, I started coughing up brown, grainy mucus," she said. "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."
After undergoing surgery in September 2025 to remove a considerable portion of her right lung and finishing chemotherapy in February 2026, she was initially informed she had the all-clear.
However, just one month later, Boda started experiencing extreme chest pains and doctors told her she had a pleural effusion - a build-up of fluid on the lungs.
While she was able to get the fluid removed, medics discovered that the cancer had re-emerged in her pleural lining after testing the fluid.
"Before the diagnosis, I was very naive and thought that something like this would never happen to me," Boda confessed. "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."
After doctors ruled there was no further treatment she could receive in the UK that would alleviate the condition, Boda was told she had less than two years left to live.
"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," Boda explained. "No words can describe how I feel. I’m 22, this isn’t meant to happen to somebody my age."
She added: "The oncologist said this is so rare, and usually something they see in patients that are 80 years old."
The Brit is currently raising money to pay for clinical trials in Germany to help prolong her life.
Boda has also urged fellow vapers to take heed of her story, emphasising: "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."
You can donate via her GoFundMe page here.