A mother of three is advocating for cancer screenings for individuals with autoimmune disorders after she mistook her incurable condition for just a common cold.

Maeve Fanning, 38, from Birmingham, was unaware of her cancer despite being diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease a year earlier. It wasn’t until last October when she began experiencing indigestion that she realized something might be wrong.

Ms. Fanning had difficulty eating due to a feeling of heaviness in her stomach. She attributed her symptoms to digestive issues and delayed contacting her GP until after a family vacation in Wales.

Doctors prescribed antacids, advising her to use them for at least a month to see any significant improvement.

However, her symptoms not only persisted but worsened. Then came a cough, which Ms. Fanning assumed was the persistent cough many experienced last winter.

It wasn’t until she began experiencing breathlessness a few days before Christmas that she thought it could be something more serious. 

On December 20, scans showed a considerable amount of fluid in her lungs. This finding concerned doctors, as it might indicate blood cancer, which could lead to an incurable diagnosis.

At this point, her haematologist mentioned that around half of patients diagnosed with a different type of cancer, called thymoma—a rare type of cancer that starts in the thymus gland in between the lungs—also have an autoimmune disorder. 

 Even still, her doctors’ primary concern was blood cancer.  

Recalling the heartbreaking ordeal, Ms Fanning told the Daily Mail: ‘When they detected fluid in my lungs and said they’d need to start treatment immediately my heart sunk. 

‘Two of my children have birthdays in January, so after my biopsy, I ran around trying to get the last bits together—balloons and presents—the call came two days later. 

‘On January 4 I was told I likely had blood cancer and that they had a bed for me. 

‘It was heartbreaking having to explain to my children that I wasn’t going to be there for them. They watched from the window as I left, crying their eyes out.’ 

Ten days later, Ms Fanning was discharged from hospital whilst doctors waited on test results to confirm whether it was blood cancer or in fact thymoma. 

‘When I asked what my prognosis was, I was told I would just have to be patient and wait for the results. It was horrendous.’

Devastatingly, the tests confirmed stage four thymoma that had spread to the lining of her lungs, meaning it was incurable—an avoidable prognosis had it been caught earlier. 

Now Ms Fanning is doing everything she can to see her three children—Oonagh, 9, Cormac, 5, and Ciaran, 2— grow up, despite being told that palliative chemotherapy, which would give her two years at most, was the only option. 

Like many other cancers, experts do not know exactly causes thymoma. 

The thymus is a gland in the chest, between the lungs, which produces and releases hormones and helps the body fight off infections.  

But it is thought that people diagnosed with thymoma are more likely to also have an autoimmune disease—which is caused by the immune system mistakenly attacking healthy cells in the body. 

The thymus gland helps keeps the immune system functioning properly, which may explain the link between autoimmune disease and thymoma. 

However, despite being diagnosed with oral lichen planus a year earlier—an autoimmune disorder affecting the skin which lines the inside of the mouth—after suffering from painful mouth ulcers, the link with thymoma was never mentioned until it was too late. 

Ms Fanning started chemotherapy just over a week later on February 14 2025, but after just one round she was told the dose was too high and her body was struggling to cope. 

At this point she weighed just over 6 stone. 

Her oncologists reduced the dose and despite responding well to the first three rounds, the treatment had stopped working by round five. 

She is now undergoing second line chemotherapy every three weeks to try and keep the cancer under control.

She has paired her medical treatment with complimentary private treatment in the form of  hyperthermia—which works by heating body tissue to help damage and kill cancer cells—hyperbaric oxygen therapy, curcumin infusions and light therapy. 

These treatments—which were recommended to her by her nutritionist who specialises in cancer care—will hopefully alter her diagnosis and help her beat cancer for good.

Ms Fanning added: ‘These treatments are life changing, and in some cases have seen people’s cancer regress from stage four to earlier stages. 

‘For me its too early to say but I want to do absolutely everything I can to ensure I am alive to see by beautiful children grow up. 

‘When I was diagnosed, my youngest was just 18 months old and at the time I wasn’t sure if Christmas 2024 would be my last with them. 

‘It’s a horrendous situation, every mother’s worst nightmare and this is why I need to do everything I can to ensure I am still with them.’ 

Together with her friends and family Ms Fanning has set up a GoFundMe Page to help cover the costs of her treatment which sees her travel down to London twice a week. 

They have so far raised around £42,000 which she hopes will see her through until Christmas. Altogether her treatments cost around £11,000 a month—a cost she could never cover alone. 

She is now due to start proton beam therapy at University College London Hospital later this month which uses high energy proton beams to treat very rare types of cancers close to vital organs.