As an extremely fit 56-year-old who has climbed to the base camp of Mount Everest, trained in the Arctic and likes to drag around five-stone tyres as part of her fitness regime, Jackie Head, from Essex, did not think lung cancer was something she needed to worry about.
But after receiving an invitation to a local NHS lung check at the end of last year, and given her family history of the disease, she thought it best to check.
“I went to the appointment full of confidence, overconfident in fact. It was just before Christmas so I wished all the nurses a Merry Christmas, safe in the presumption that I wouldn’t see them again. But then, a few days later I received a call to say they’ve found two abnormalities.”
In January Head, from Chalkwell in Southend-on-Sea, was told she had lung cancer.
“My lungs are my strength,” she said. “I climb under altitude so I never thought I would get lung cancer, or if I did, I would at least feel something. But I had zero symptoms. It was only because of my family history that I went for the check.”
Further tests confirmed the diagnosis: stage 1a non-small cell lung cancer.
On 2 March, Head had a video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) lobectomy, a minimally invasive procedure to remove a lobe in the lung. The surgery is performed through one to three small cuts, just a few centimetres long, in the side of the chest.
Three weeks later she was told she did not need any further treatment. “It’s been a complete whirlwind,” she said. “I don’t think I ever really had time for the reality to sink in, and now I am cancer free.”
Head says she owes her life to the NHS lung check. It was part of a successful pilot scheme that resulted in more than 2,000 people being detected as having cancer, 76% of them at an earlier stage compared with 29% outside the programme in 2019.
Last month it was announced that everyone who has ever smoked in England is to be offered lung screening in middle age under plans to detect and treat cancer earlier.
Lung cancer is the UK’s biggest cancer killer, taking more lives than breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers combined and killing more women than breast and ovarian cancers combined, according to the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.
The recent news of the death of Emily Morgan, the 45-year-old ITV News health editor, as well as Dame Esther Rantzen’s incurable diagnosis, have served as fresh reminders of how devastating lung cancer can be.
“I feel so incredibly lucky,” said Head. “Hearing about the death of Emily Morgan and how Dame Esther Rantzen is living with an incurable disease, it’s made me realise just how different my story could have been had it not been for this check.”
After surgery in March, Head was determined to return to what she loves doing most. In May, she celebrated crossing the finish line at the London2Brighton 100k.
The lung cancers of about 9,000 people a year could be caught sooner under the scheme being introduced across England. Backed by a recommendation from the UK national screening committee, patients will have their risk of cancer assessed based on their smoking history and other factors. Those considered high risk will be invited for specialist scans every two years.
Under the scheme, 325,000 people are expected to be eligible for a first scan each year, with a total of 992,000 scans a year. There are no similar initiatives in Scotland or Northern Ireland, while Wales is aiming to implement its own pilot this year.
