Plea of non-smoker from Hastings diagnosed with lung cancer at 37

A non-smoker who was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 37 is campaigning to raise awareness of the disease in young women.

Jules Fielder, from Hastings, East Sussex, secured a meeting with Health Secretary Wes Streeting after a social media campaign.

Ms Fielding, now 41, said she was challenging “outdated stereotypes” about the disease, particularly that it only affected older people or people who smoke.

She is calling for “immediate action” against one of the UK's biggest cancer killers.

Ms Fielder said she was given a prognosis of six to nine months in August.

She said: “I just thought: this is it, now this is the last straw for me.

“I’m just going to use my lifeline as a tool and use the power of social media to try and give me what I need.

“And that’s why I wanted to highlight Wes Streeting – to show that lung cancer is the number one killer in the UK, but it gets the least attention.”

Ms Fielder has almost 35,000 followers on her cancer journey blog on Instagram.

As part of a coordinated movement with the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation on social media, she asked followers to take a black and white photo with their finger to their lips, with the hashtag BreakTheSilence.

Ms Fielding said the response had been “overwhelming”, leading to an invitation from the Health Secretary.

She said she was determined to break down “outdated stereotypes” about the disease.

She said: “We still live in such an outdated time where the stigma around lung cancer is associated with a male smoker.

“I'm not willing to sit around any longer and wait for another decade of nonsmokers to give lung cancer the awareness and attention it needs.”