Stage IV Lung Cancer: Tejal's Patient Story

What happened, in summary

Tejal learned she had Stage IV lung cancer from her younger brother, who is a critical care and pulmonology physician. The diagnosis felt isolating and unreal. She was a vegetarian, did not drink, had never smoked, and considered herself physically fit, yet she still had lung cancer. Her life had been full of plans: finishing a master’s degree, starting a new job, and looking forward to summer with her husband and twin boys. A lung cancer subtype, biomarker result, metastatic site, and treatment regimen were not named. Tejal’s story is mainly about what a Stage IV lung cancer diagnosis did to her sense of identity and purpose. She became determined to “breathe easy and fight hard,” using that phrase for her own fight and for fundraising through the Free to Breathe Walk. She also wanted to challenge the stigma attached to lung cancer, especially for women, South Asian patients, and never-smokers. The safest way to describe her latest status is living with cancer: she is alive and advocating, but no treatment response, remission status, or scan result was shared. Her story focuses on diagnosis, family, stigma, support, and research advocacy.