A 22-year-old woman from Manchester who was recently diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer has rejected her terminal prognosis and started fundraising for experimental treatment in Germany.
Kayley Boda was first diagnosed with a moderately aggressive form of cancer, Stage 3a mucinous adenocarcinoma, in her lower right lung in August 2025.
She underwent a lobectomy last September to remove the tumour; at the same time, she also completed four rounds of chemotherapy, and had six lymph nodes removed.
At the start of this year, Kayley was given the all-clear.
She said: “I was over the moon because it was mentally and physically draining – I finally thought I could get my life back.”
However, a month ago, Kayley was unfortunately taken back into hospital with a fluid build-up on her lungs (plural effusion), having just under two litres of fluid drained from the area in a procedure called Pleurodesis.
On April 9 2026, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust sadly diagnosed Kayley with a Stage 4 recurrent plural adenocarcinoma with KRAS A146VAL and KRAS Gly12VAL positive mutations.
In other words, her cancer had returned with even more aggression than before, and was now seen as terminal, giving her an estimated 18 months to live with treatment.
Kayley said: “I’m devastated, because I want to fight to live.
“I want to be with my family and live a healthy life, I want a shot at fighting this cruel disease, and I want to show people not to give up even when you feel there is no hope.
“The support I have around me, family and friends, they’ve all been amazing – I couldn’t ask for a better support network.”
Kayley refuses to accept her prognosis, with her father, Andrew Wickenden, setting up a GoFundMe page to raise money for experimental treatment in Germany.
The family hope to secure at least £20,000 in donations, which should cover the expense of driving Kayley to Frankfurt – as her condition means she’s unable to fly – as well as the cost of starting treatment at University Hospital Frankfurt.
Andrew said: “This is just like living in a nightmare – I don’t sleep all night and when I do doze off, I wake up with terrible nightmares, just seeing what she’s been through.
“Everyone knows cancer’s bad, but until you’ve actually been there in the hospital seeing your daughter in excruciating pain, screaming that she’s dying, you don’t know. You can’t even put it into words.
“If I could give her my lungs and heart I would; I’ve told her I’d lie down next to her and save her by giving her parts of my body.”
With no family history of any similar conditions, Andrew is struggling to understand how Kayley’s health has deteriorated in this way.
He described how active her lifestyle had previously been, involving regular walking and swimming, offering a stark contrast to the reduced mobility she has now.
Kayley’s condition is indeed a rare one: according to Cancer Research UK, lung cancer in people aged 20 – 24 only occurs at a crude rate of 0.3 in every 100,000, or 0.0003% of people this age.
Her prognosis is also rare: Cancer Research UK estimates that almost 9 in 10 (87%) young people (aged 15-24) diagnosed with a form of cancer survive for five years or more.
While the family have already faced many battles, they sadly face one more online, having been trolled and accused of lying for money.
Andrew said: “Some of the things people are saying are absolutely disgusting.
“I’m being called an impostor, a fraudster, people are claiming we’re raising money just for Kayley to go on holiday when she can’t even fly.
“I’d just really like for everything to stop, and people to realise that until their own family member is going through something similar, they won’t know what it’s like and how far you’d go to help them.”
The family’s GoFundMe has already raised over £7,000, and can be accessed here.
If you, or someone you know, is affected by cancer, support can be found from Macmillan here, or Cancer Research UK’s online chat forum here.
Support for those dealing with online hate can be found here.