EXCLUSIVE: Mum Chloe Houghton, 32, discovered she has terminal stage 4 lung cancer months after first visiting her GP, who dismissed her lump as a harmless cyst and blamed the symptoms on toddler exhaustion
After being told she has incurable cancer, a heartbroken mum-of-two has told how she can barely look at her young children, aged one and four, without feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt that she is about to leave them behind.
Chloe Houghton, a fit and active 32-year-old beauty salon owner, received the devastating diagnosis after discovering a lump on her chest – which she was repeatedly reassured was just a harmless cyst.
However when she finally had it removed, doctors diagnosed her with stage four Small Cell lung cancer, after discovering that the disease had already spread.
“I’ve never smoked or vaped in my life but all you need for lung cancer is a pair of lungs,” Chloe, from Northamptonshire, told the Daily Mirror.
Chloe first noticed the small mass while in the shower. Though it was only a few millimetres wide at the time, it began growing rapidly and became painful when she picked up her son.
A doctor initially told Chloe the lump was likely just a bit of cartilage. Because the mass moved when she pressed it, she was assured it was a “good” sign and highly unlikely to be cancerous.
Following a series of follow-up visits to the doctor and blood tests that all came back clear, Chloe pushed to have the lump removed in August 2025.
“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 explained. “I wanted it off because it was hurting me when I picked my son up.”
After waiting weeks without receiving a surgery date, Chloe sought a second opinion from a different doctor. This GP referred her to a sarcoma clinic as a protocol, and booked her in for general surgery.
By February 2026, Chloe was still waiting for the operation, and the lump had expanded to two centimetres. During a hospital consultation, her mother told the doctor that Chloe’s weight had dropped down from 10 stone to just seven.
Alarmed by the rapid weight loss, the consultant ordered an urgent CT scan of her chest, abdomen and pelvis. Six weeks later, the results flagged an abnormality on her lungs that needed further investigation.
On the day that the chest lump was finally removed, the consultant admitted he was far more worried about her lungs than the mass itself, which he suspected was an infected cyst.
Three weeks later, Chloe received an unexpected call telling her to meet with the consultant “as soon as possible” and to bring a relative with her.
Accompanied by her mother and her husband, former firefighter Jamie who she married last July, Chloe received the shattering results.
The biopsy showed she had neuroendocrine sarcoma.
“The consultant said it was a secondary cancer,” Chloe 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.”
Initially doctors were hopeful, suggesting chemotherapy followed by surgery to remove the cancerous part of the lung, because she was young, fit and healthy. Chloe was told that if she had been an older smoker, doctors would have considered lung cancer as a possibility much sooner.
However, the optimism was brutally short-lived. A week later, her lung cancer nurse called with devastating news: the mass was Small Cell lung cancer – an aggressive, fast-growing form of the disease that accounts for 10% to 15% of cases and is almost exclusively linked to tobacco use in older adults. Because it had already metastasised, surgery was completely off the table.
A subsequent meeting with her oncologist confirmed that the advanced cancer would “significantly” reduce her life expectancy. As the cancer had spread outside of her lung, it meant they weren’t able to operate and that it was “a case of chemotherapy and immunotherapy for as long as your body can tolerate it.”
Chloe said: “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?’
“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.”
With her life completely turning upside down, Chloe was also told she wouldn’t be able to work – and handed a SR1 form – a medical report that provides evidence that a patient is nearing the end of life in order to fast-track assistance.
She said: “That’s when I knew how serious it really was. The nurse told me not to think too much into it, but it will mean I am entitled to some support financially and mentally.
Tragically, it was a form her family know all too well. Chloe had lost her dad to pulmonary fibrosis just a year prior, and he had been given the exact same paperwork, meaning her mother knew instantly that the condition was untreatable.
Because Chloe has unknowingly been living with untreated cancer since August 2025, doctors can’t give her an exact prognosis. Small Cell lung cancer typically carries a life expectancy of just a few months without intervention, meaning her survival depends entirely on how her body responds to treatment.
She began chemotherapy on June 2nd this year – the day before her 32nd birthday.
“I have good days and bad days but on the whole I’m okay,” said Chloe. “It has put things into perspective for me. I’m just trying to enjoy the time that I’ve got.”
According to The Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), lung cancer is the leading cause of death due to cancer worldwide. Significantly, the number of cases is rising alarmingly for women – especially younger non-smokers. This trend is exacerbated by the fact that early stage symptoms are often subtle and mistaken for benign respiratory issues.
In Chloe’s case, her early symptoms were misdiagnosed, with her GP brushing off her extreme fatigue and breathlessness as the exhaustion from raising toddlers. Her sudden inability to eat was misdiagnosed as a stomach ulcer, for which she was booked for an endoscopy.
Since starting chemotherapy, these symptoms have disappeared.
Despite her terminal diagnosis, Chloe is channelling her remaining energy into helping others through TikTok, sharing her story openly to advocate for women’s health.
“This is a really rubbish situation, but it could be worse. I can’t change the card that I’ve been dealt,” Chloe said. “I can only change how I respond to it right now. So that’s why if I can help spread some awareness and help just one person.
“As women, you just have to keep pushing and advocating if you know something is wrong. I asked my consultant why it didn’t show up in any blood tests he told me it’s because this type of cancer doesn’t show up in blood. We need to do more to help women who are worried about their health.”
She added: “All I would say to people is to be very self-aware of your own body. Obviously, you should always be checking for lumps and for things that aren’t your normal. And if you’re not happy with something, you have to push for yourself.”
Key symptoms
Symptoms in the early stages are usually mild but rarely disappear. These include a new or worsening lingering cough for more than three weeks, shortness of breath during normal activities such as climbing stairs, frequent or recurring chest infections, voice hoarseness, unexplained fatigue or mild chest discomfort.
Small cell lung cancer is an aggressive, fast-growing type of lung cancer that accounts for about 10% to 15% of all lung cases. According to Macmillan, it’s traditionally linked to tobacco use and has a high tendency to spread rapidly to other parts of the body.
But Chloe had never smoked or vaped in her life, and sadly young, healthy non-smoking women are becoming a higher statistic for lung cancer. Screening is now available for people over 55 with a history of smoking, but women like Chloe are only being diagnosed once the cancer has spread.
According to Cancer Research UK, lung cancer is the second most common cancer in women with around 24,700 new cases every year – accounting for 13pc of all new female cancer cases in the UK.
While mortality rates have decreased by 40pc since the 1970s due to falling smoking rates among men, the incidence of lung cancer in females increased by more than 62pc.
Experts are still exploring exact causes, but hormones could also play a factor for women, as well as indoor air pollution, caused by wood-burning stoves and biomass fuels used for cooking and heating, has also been identified as a significant risk factor.
Outdoor air pollution is believed to cause around one in 10 lung cancer cases in the UK. Doctors believe women’s smaller lungs and narrower airways can lead to a higher concentration of pollutants becoming trapped. London is the most polluted city in Europe, and fifth worldwide from fumes and gases.
Experts suggest that genetic mutations also have a part to play. Research from the Francis Crick Institute suggest that air pollution might “wake up” dormant cells in the lungs that carry these cancer-causing mutations, promoting their growth.
Chloe has also set up a GoFundMe to help with medical costs, if she needs them, or to help go towards not being able to work, and providing for her family. You can find her fundraiser here.
For anyone worrying about lung cancer, it’s always recommended to speak with your GP or a health professional. For more information, you can visit the Cancer Research website here.