Jackie Hugill

Mum of two Jackie was diagnosed in July 2014 with an unusual type of lung cancer, after seeing her GP about a persistent cough.

Although consultants reassured Jackie the tumour was slow growing, surgery was scheduled for September 2014, where her entire right lung was removed to stop the cancer spreading.

Steve said:

We were on a caravan holiday with friends, one of whom is an x-ray technician. She insisted Jackie got her cough checked out, so she made an appointment with the GP when she got home.

The GP sent Jackie to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for x-rays and seeing them was quite a shock because we could just see a blip on her lung but didn’t know what it was.

When we spoke with the surgeon he explained that although the tumour was slow-growing, he wanted to remove it to stop any further growth.

During surgery the tumour found was larger than anticipated, and protruded into the upper lobe of the lung so removal of the entire lung was necessary.

My instant worry was just for how Jackie and her two children would cope with the news. It wasn’t easy for me either but I try to be as optimistic as possible about things like this. The way I saw it was things could have been a lot worse.

During her recovery, I could see her getting better as each day went by and at her follow up appointments her surgeon always told us she was doing better than expected so that was really encouraging to hear.

Steve said:

Without a doubt contact your GP and get anything that’s worrying you checked out. You’ll never know until you go and speak to someone.

Even though it was an unsettling time, things turned out well for Jackie and we still do everything we used to like going out for walks together and she’s still always running around keeping herself busy.

The information in this case study, including ages, are current as of the drafting date.