‘Nothing else seemed wrong. I was normal but with a cough’ – Venetia Hill on her surprising cancer diagnosis

It was May 2024, and Venetia Hill was on holiday in Lucca, Italy, with her husband Michael and some friends when she began to notice she had a “relentless cough”.“I can’t quite explain it except to say that I coughed out of the window because I was embarrassed about it. I just couldn’t clear my throat,” the 67-year-old says.She decided to make an appointment with her GP when she got home, who then referred her to a respiratory specialist.“Nothing else seemed to be wrong. I was up and running, and I was being normal but with a cough and feeling quite tired. I couldn’t see [the specialist] until August and he requested a bronchoscopy. From there it moved quite quickly to a biopsy ... he said, ‘I think you have lung cancer,’ which wasn’t what I expected to hear,” she recalls. READ MORESpeaking publicly to mark Lung Cancer Awareness Month, Hill says she was “so surprised” when she received the diagnosis.According to the Health Service Executive (HSE), more than 2,500 people are diagnosed with lung cancer every year in Ireland – making it the third most common type. About seven in 10 diagnosed with the disease are 65 or older – it is quite rare in people younger than 40.Early diagnosis is a key factor in how treatable lung cancer is. The HSE says that after diagnosis, four in 10 people with lung cancer live for at least one year, while one in 10 live at least 10.'I’m terribly lucky in that I have a super husband and very supportive family,' says Venetia Hill. Photograph: Alan Betson Hill, who was diagnosed with stage three lung cancer, had surgery in October 2024 to remove the lower left lobe of her lung. She also underwent chemotherapy and took part in a clinical trial. Though she was grateful for the treatment options, they took a significant toll on her body. “It is very gruelling and awful. I’m terribly lucky in that I have a super husband and very supportive family. I was sick every time, I was on the floor with treatment,” she says.“When you receive this life-altering diagnosis, everything turns upside down. One of the things that really helped me to get through was keeping everything as normal as possible until it wasn’t normal. I made it my business to be walking up and down stairs after surgery. It gave me structure and agency.”She smoked 10 cigarettes a day when she was younger, but quit 30 years ago.“I found it really, really hard to give up and I found it very important that I stayed off them. If you smoke, I’d advise you to really think about it, really try to stop. And I would say the same about vaping because it’s a very unknown field.” [ Initial breathlessness turned out to be incurable cancer: ‘My initial reaction was shock’Opens in new window ]Edel Shovlin, chief operations officer at the Irish Cancer Society, says being aware of the signs and symptoms of lung cancer “is vital for early detection and can save lives”. “The more treatment options there are, and the better the outcome for the patient,” she says.Shovlin says the signs to be aware of are: a cough that doesn’t go away or a change to an existing cough; wheezing or breathlessness; repeated chest infections that won’t go away; coughing up bloodstained phlegm; chest pain; swelling around your face and neck; difficulty swallowing; tiredness; weight loss; and a loss of appetite.