Mel’s update: no evidence of active disease six years after a stage 4 EGFR+ lung cancer diagnosis
Mel has been part of All You Need Is Lungs for the last two years. She was diagnosed with stage 4 EGFR+ lung cancer in 2020, when she was 52. She’d been having crippling fatigue that was first put down to Long COVID, and it was only when she had an x-ray that they found a tumour in her left lung.
Six years later, she’s had some very good news.
“Six years later, I’m still here with stage 4 lung cancer. Thanks to my drug, osimertinib, I am no evidence of active disease. Hearing this news in June was music to my ears.”
It’s been a good year in other ways too. Mel became a grandparent again, and she rode 56 miles in Sir Chris Hoy’s Tour de 4, the cycling event for people living with stage 4 cancer.
“Cycling helps me feel alive.”
She’s honest about the hard parts. The worst, she says, is losing people she loves. What she wants next is a better second-line treatment on the NHS, ready for when osimertinib stops working.
Her fatigue was put down to Long COVID. Six years later, Mel is cycling 56 miles and telling people who’ve just been diagnosed that they’re not on their own.
