‘I bought a 600-puff disposable vape a week and now I’ve got lung cancer at 21’

Kayley Boda, 22, from Manchester, began vaping at 15 and was going through one 600-puff disposable vape a week when she began coughing up a brown substance containing ‘grainy bits’ in January 2025

A young woman who started vaping at the age of 15 has issued a grave warning after being diagnosed with lung cancer at just 21. Kayley Boda, now 22, was using one 600-puff vape per week when she began coughing up a brown substance containing “grainy bits” in January 2025.

The retail worker from Manchester disclosed that her concerns were dismissed by medical professionals eight times, as they insisted she had a chest infection, until she began coughing up blood. Following this, an X-ray revealed a shadow on Kayley’s lung, but she was reassured by doctors that they were “99% sure” it wasn’t cancerous.

However after undergoing seven biopsies, Kayley was diagnosed with lung cancer. She has since undergone surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung and received chemotherapy treatment.

Now, she is speaking out to raise awareness about the potential dangers of vaping.

Kayley shared: “A few months after I switched from reusable vapes to disposable ones, I started coughing up brown, grainy mucus.”

“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.

“They told me they were 99% sure with me being so young that it wasn’t cancer, so not to worry about it. When I got the results back and they told me it was lung cancer, it felt so surreal.

“Before the diagnosis, I was very naïve and thought that something like this would never happen to me.

“I had surgery to remove half of my right lung, it gave me PTSD. I have the same dream every night, where I wake up in that hospital bed not being able to breathe, having to learn to walk again.

“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.

“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.”

Kayley had begun smoking occasionally during her teenage years and started using reusable vapes at 15.

She only began using disposable vapes mere months before her cancer symptoms emerged. In November 2024, Kayley developed a rash covering her entire body, which medics initially attributed to shingles, chicken pox, or scabies.

“I got treated for all three, and nothing worked,” she said. “It got the point where I was cutting myself from scratching so hard.”

Several months later, she started coughing up dark brown mucus containing grainy particles with a sugar-like consistency.

“At first I thought it was normal, because I vaped a lot, so I brushed it off,” she said.

When her persistent cough continued, she visited her GP but was told it might be scarring from pneumonia or a chest infection. In March 2025, Kayley started coughing up bright red blood and promptly sought medical attention.

Following a chest X-ray, doctors discovered a shadow on her lower right lung.

Over the subsequent four months, Kayley underwent seven biopsies to examine the “shadow”. Despite reassurances from the doctors, in August, she received the devastating news that she had stage one lung cancer.

In September, Kayley underwent surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung and the surrounding lymph nodes. During the operation, the doctors upgraded Kayley’s cancer from stage one to stage three after discovering cancer in six nearby lymph nodes.

Post-surgery, Kayley struggled with breathing and had to relearn how to walk. “I still can’t sleep on the side where my surgery was, I can’t go up and down stairs on my own, I have to have a commode in my room,” she revealed.

“I don’t go out with my friends anymore because I’m so embarrassed that I can’t even walk to the bottom of the road.”