HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – A Harrisburg woman who says she never smoked, got diagnosed with lung cancer.

“The summer of 2021 was really special because we were getting my daughter ready for kindergarten and like what a milestone, we were school shopping. We were getting ready for all that,” said Stephanie Williams.

At the same time, Stephanie Williams say’s she was also dealing with a persistent cough.

“Now, it was mild. So, I didn’t think much of it. I wasn’t sick,” said Williams.

Williams says she has her regular appointment with her primary care physician scheduled in September, so she brought up the cough.

“We tossed some things around. Could this be allergies? Could this be acid reflux? But I ended up asking for a chest x-ray at that appointment. I was able to get one right there in the office,” said Williams.

The next day, Williams doctor called her to say there was a mass seen on that x-ray.

Following more tests, in October 2021, Williams life changed forever when she learned what she had.

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“Stage 2 B non-small cell lung cancer. Further down there, it’s also ALK positive, which is a type that affects primarily younger nonsmokers, which I was,” said Williams.

At the age of 37, Williams who doesn’t smoke had lung cancer.

“It was shocking. I don’t have a family history of cancer,” said Williams.

According to the CDC, between 10% to 20% of people diagnosed with lung cancer each year never smoked or smoked less than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime.

“Lung cancer is actually a diversity of disease. We always think of it as a smoker’s disease, but there’s also a nonsmoker’s disease,” said Dr. Michael Reed Chief, Division of Thoracic Surgery at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. The CDC says radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer deaths in the United States. Radon is an odorless and invisible radioactive gas naturally released from rocks, soil, and water.

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