Sarah’s update: a stable year with stage 4 EGFR+ lung cancer

Sarah first shared her story with us in 2025. She’s a special needs teacher, and her fatigue, headaches and dizziness were put down to the menopause, by her and by a neurologist. A CT head scan, done “just to rule anything out”, found six brain metastases, and she was diagnosed with stage 4 EGFR+ lung cancer in 2024.

Two years on, she’s had a stable year.

“I feel incredibly grateful to have had more than two years since being diagnosed with EGFR+ lung cancer, and especially to have had a stable year.”

It’s been a year of changes for Sarah and her family. Their older son got engaged, she took early retirement from teaching, and they got a new puppy. She’s also been away in the campervan a lot, out of school holidays now that she can.

She’s kept busy in other ways too. Sarah took part in a fundraising walking challenge with other people living with EGFR+ lung cancer, and she’s become a patient advocate for her regional NHS Cancer Alliance. She’s still sewing and painting, though she says everything takes longer these days.

Her faith, family and friends help her through the worry and the tiredness, and she’s learning to ask for help when she needs it.

“Living with incurable cancer is a daily balancing act between fear and gratitude.”

She doesn’t want to make it sound easy.

“Living with incurable cancer is hard, and I don’t want to pretend otherwise. I still have days when the fear takes over, and the fatigue is frustrating. Walking daily with others grounds me, clears my head and reminds me how much I love the simple things in life.”