Leeds teacher with stage 4 lung cancer wants to send positive message that patients 'can live a normal, happy, full life'

Natasha, 49, of Guiseley, says: "You can live with stage 4 cancer. Nowadays, the treatments are sometimes so good that, actually, you can live a normal, happy, full life doing everything that you love. Just because you’ve got cancer it doesn’t mean to say that your life has to stop, because it really doesn’t.”

Her focus now is also on raising awareness that lung cancer can affect all kinds of people, not just smokers as is sometimes assumed.

"We really need to put it down in people's consciousness that if you’ve got lungs, you can get lung cancer,” says mother-of-two Natasha.

She adds: “It’s raising the profile and getting rid of that stigma as well. I still find myself, even now, saying: ‘I've got lung cancer, but I don't smoke!’” She finds herself having to “almost justify” the diagnosis.

Colleagues at Farsley Farfield Primary School, where Natasha teaches a year two class, persuaded her to visit the doctor in September after her breathing had started to sound like “a door creaking open or a squeaky dog toy”. Once she did, she was called back in a few days later.

During her appointment, she was told the x-ray had uncovered a mass on the right upper lobe of her lung. The doctors initially thought it was tuberculosis, but further tests ruled it out, and biopsies, PET and CT scans confirmed that the abnormalities in her lung and lymph nodes were most likely cancer.

On December 8, Natasha was given a diagnosis of lung cancer and told it was linked to the EGFR+ mutation, which is most commonly seen in young women who are non-smokers. Then on January 11, Stage 4 Non Small Cell Lung Cancer EGFR+ was confirmed.

Meanwhile, she had been getting headaches and a scan revealed brain metastases, presenting as three small tumours. However, that meant she could start taking osimertinib, a cancer growth blocker, and says the size of her lung masses reduced significantly.

There is no precise prognosis for how long Natasha might have, but she says people on the drug have gone on to live for years, and recent results showed a 25 per cent overall reduction in her primary tumour.

Would she prefer to know how much time she has?

“No thank you. I don't want to look over that cliff. As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to be here in 10 years time.

"Since having this diagnosis, it has totally reframed everything. It's completely reframed my life. You are grateful for every single day and you live every single day as much as you can. You just find so much enjoyment even out of the smallest little things.”

Natasha is currently on leave from work but is looking forward to getting back and is full of praise for the support of her family – husband Matthew and daughters Gracie, 17, and Emily, 15 – as well as the NHS.

“I’m very lucky to be under St James's (Hospital, in Leeds) because we've got some of the best care in the country, if not in the world.”

Natasha, friends and family are also raising funds for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation and have organised events such as a sponsored walk up Scafell Pike – England’s tallest summit, in the Lake District – and a 90s disco.

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the country, according to Cancer Research UK.

To prevent cases, Natasha would like to see more screening of non-smokers and younger people for lung cancer.

For now, she continues to get up in the morning and take the family’s dogs, border collie Max and working cocker spaniel Olive, out on the Otley Chevin.

“All you can do now is just live your best life. I haven't got the space in my brain to start thinking all those negative thoughts.”

To visit the family’s fundraising pages, head to www.justgiving.com and search “Natasha Loveridge”. She also charts her progress on Instagram using the handle “tasha.vs.thebigc”.