LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The American Cancer Society estimates that Kentucky will have approximately 5,100 new cases of lung and bronchus cancer this year.

Leah Phillips remembers the day in Dec. 2019 when she was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. She was just 43 years old.

“At that point, my husband, my mom and I were in the room and you could’ve knocked us over with a feather. I knew people with lung cancer. I knew people got lung cancer, but I assumed that would have never been my situation, because I had never smoked, used drugs, didn’t work around asbestos or in a plant with chemicals. So, we were just shocked.” Phillips explained.

She said she was born with a gene that is not hereditary and worked properly for a while. Phillips said at some point in her life, the gene broke and allowed cancer to grow.

Weeks after her diagnosis, the wife and mother of three said she and her husband went to Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Tennessee where she says they spoke with a research doctor.

“We asked her, like, ‘Why would this happen? How?’ and she said ‘We firmly believe there’s a lot of strong link to radon exposure.’” Phillips explained.

These days, she feels good. She works out, keeps up with her kids and just lives life.

“There are definitely side effects from the treatment that I’m on that are kind of like a pain or a drag or whatever. But, the way I look at it is I can deal with the side-effects because if I stop taking the medication, the cancer is going to come back,” she said.

Phillips works hard to spread lung cancer awareness. She has traveled to Frankfort several times, letting people know that it’s not just smokers who get lung cancer.

“The more people that know about lung cancer and about that, it’s not just elderly people. It’s not just people who haven’t taken good care of themselves. If you have lungs, you can get lung cancer. I mean, I’m proof.” said Phillips.

The CDC said lung cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the U.S.. It also says more people die from lung cancer than from any other cancer, regardless of their gender.

“The more awareness is brought, the more people will donate money toward lung cancer. Right now, they get the smallest funding in terms of breast and prostate cancer get more funding than lung cancer and lung cancer kills more annually than those two combined.” Phillips said.

Phillips plans to add more annual cancer ribbons to her arm like she has since her first “cancerversary,” as she calls it.

“I’ll get a fourth in December, and I hope that I have a whole sleeve eventually,” she said.

To talk to a lung health professional, call the American Lung Association’s lung Helpline at 1-800-548-8282.