Chloe Houghton: Mum diagnosed with terminal lung cancer after being assured lump was harmless

A young British mother who was told a growing lump on her chest was a harmless cyst has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

Chloe Houghton, 32, received the heart-breaking diagnosis after months of seeking help for a lump, a few millilitres in size, that she found on her chest while showering.

The mother-of-two said she was repeatedly assured the mass was nothing serious, with one doctor suggesting it was likely cartilage and unlikely to be cancerous because it moved when pressed.

The small mass started to become painful as it grew at an alarming rate, prompting Ms Houghton to return to a GP to have a series of follow-up blood tests.

“It was getting bigger and you could notice it on my chest so I was having to wear higher neckline tops to cover it,” she told the Daily Mirror.

“I wanted it off because it was hurting me when I picked my son up.”

In pain and desperate for answers, Ms Houghton demanded medical professionals remove the lump after blood tests returned clear results.

The beauty salon owner faced lengthy delays before eventually being referred for surgery, at which time the lump had grown to two centimetres.

In the meantime, Ms Houghton sought a second opinion from a medical professional as she began rapidly losing weight.

Concerned by her declining condition, a consultant ordered urgent scans of her pelvis, chest and abdomen, which revealed an abnormality on her lungs, exposing a far more sinister diagnosis that initial believed by doctors.

Surrounded by her mum and husband, Jamie, Ms Houghton was told the devastating results.

“The consultant said it was a secondary cancer,” she said.

“The primary cancer was in my lung. What they had removed was the tumour that had already spread outside of the lung into my chest.”

Ms Houghton, who said she had never smoked of vaped, was shocked by the diagnosis.

“I’ve never smoked or vaped in my life but all you need for lung cancer is a pair of lungs,” she said.

Doctors first though treatment could involve chemotherapy followed by surgery because she was young, fit and otherwise healthy.

But those hopes were shattered when further analysis revealed she had Small Cell lung cancer, an aggressive form of the disease that had already spread beyond her lung.

During a meeting with her oncologist, Ms Houghton was told the disease would “significantly” reduce her life expectancy and that treatment would focus on chemo and immunotherapy for as long as her body could tolerate it.

Ms Houghton’s thoughts immediately turned to her two young children, aged one and four, in the face of the heartbreaking diagnosis.

“I got upset straight away and all I said was ‘I’ve got a one-year-old and a four-year-old. I’m not going to see them grow up, am I?’” she said.

“He turned around to me and said ‘It would be incredibly cruel for me to say that you will’. Then everything just sort of stopped around me.

“After that, I didn’t hear anything, because in my head all I kept thinking was ‘I’m going to die. I’m not going to see my kids grow up.’ It was just horrid.”

According to Cancer Australia, small cell cancer is one of two main types of lung cancer and is characterised by cancer cells that appear small under a microscope.

It is less common than no-small cell lung cancer, accounting for about 10 to 15 per cent of cases.

The government body says small cell lung cancer tends to grow and spread quickly and has often already spread to other parts of the body by the time it is diagnosed.

Common lung cancer symptoms:

• Coughing up blood
• New or changed cough that doesn’t go away
• Chest pain and/or shoulder pain or discomfort – the pain may be worse with coughing or deep breathing
• Trouble breathing or shortness of breath
• Trouble swallowing
• Hoarse voice
• Weight loss
• Loss of appetite
• Chest infection that doesn’t go away
• Tiredness or weakness.