Victoria Puar, 46, says she contracted the virus during a trip with her family in August 2021 and suffered from a horrible cough for months afterward. Believing the cough was the result of lingering Covid, Victoria was finally sent for tests earlier this year – which eventually revealed she was living with stage four lung cancer. The mother-of-two, from Castle Bromwich, West Midlands, says her only wish is to make memories with her beloved family and is urging anyone suffering from a cough to get it checked out by a doctor as soon as possible. Her NHS colleagues are also trying to raise money so that Victoria and her radiographer husband, Ben, 46, can take their children, son Joseph, 11, and daughter, Lydia, 8, to Disneyland in time she has left. The nurse said: “My life has been turned upside down. It’s crazy, just completely crazy. “Hopefully the chemotherapy and immunotherapy will give me a few more years. I pray for that. “If someone has a cough, just please go get them checked and don’t assume it’s just a Covid cough. “I never thought for a minute that my cough would be cancer. I literally thought it was a Covid cough because that’s what they tell you. “There are a lot of people out there who are coughing and you just don’t get it. You don’t know if it’s something more serious, so just get it checked out, please.” Victoria, Ben and their two children were forced into quarantine after the entire family contracted Covid-19 during a camping holiday in August 2021. Ben and Joseph suffered badly from the virus, while Victoria and Lydia didn’t feel too bad. (Victoria Puar / SWNS) But after the family recovered, Victoria returned to work at Birmingham Children’s Hospital as a nurse – and noticed she still had a cough. She said: “Ben and Joseph were pretty bad but me and Lydia weren’t that bad – I was just a bit weak and had a cough. I just kept coughing. “When I called my doctor in October 2021, they told me not to come straight away because it was a Covid cough and you need a good amount of time to get over it, so give it three months. “They just kept saying it looks like long Covid, that’s all they would say, because nobody knows exactly how long Covid is or how to treat it as it’s so young. “I kept working as I got negative PCR tests and I didn’t feel bad, I just kept coughing.” Victoria says her doctor dismissed her cough as a result of long-term Covid. He continued to work on the front lines throughout the pandemic. (Victoria Puar / SWNS) It wasn’t until February 2022 – six months after contracting Covid – that Victoria was sent for a chest X-ray with her cough still there after her doctor was concerned about the sound of her breathing. An X-ray showed inflammation in her chest and Victoria was put on steroids and inhalers with doctors believing she may have developed asthma as a result of the coronavirus. The medicine reduced the inflammation in her chest and Victoria was sent for another chest X-ray where doctors noticed a shadow in her left lower lung. Victoria then underwent an emergency CT scan, PET scan, EBUS procedure, biopsies and blood tests to figure out what the shadow might mean. The CT scan revealed a pericardial effusion where there is a build-up of excess fluid in the pericardium which is the structure around the heart. An ultrasound on June 9 showed Victoria was in fact in heart failure and the mother-of-two was rushed to theater where 410ml of fluid was drained from her heart – more fluid than in a can of Coke. The procedure meant Victoria could breathe more clearly, but she was then finally diagnosed with stage four adenocarcinoma two weeks ago on June 14. Despite the long wait for a diagnosis, she says she doesn’t blame her GP or the NHS – as she herself thought she had Covid for a long time. Victoria said: “At first they thought it was stage one, but then they found it had spread from my lungs to my heart and to a lymph node in my collarbone, so it’s stage four cancer. “Going through all these tests was horrendous because I’m a children’s nurse and they told me I had a pericardial effusion for which we would immediately take our little patients to theater to drain the fluid. “I seemed more concerned about the fluid than they were because I’m used to treating kids for it, but I’m an adult so it’s a little different as an adult body can hold more fluid. “Inflammation hid the shadow behind it, so without the steroids reducing it, they would never have seen the cancer there. We don’t know if the inflammation was caused by Covid or the cancer.” Victoria will now undergo two rounds of chemotherapy and one round of immunotherapy with her first chemotherapy this Friday. Her colleagues at Birmingham Children’s Hospital set up a JustGiving page last week in the hope of raising money for Victoria to take her children to Disneyland and make as many special memories as she can. Incredibly, kind strangers around the world rushed to support her and her JustGiving page raised over £8,000 in the first 48 hours after going live on the site. As Victoria prepares for her first round of chemotherapy, she is urging anyone with a cough to see their doctor straight away and not to dismiss it as possible long-term Covid. He said: “My life has been turned upside down. It’s crazy, just completely crazy. “Hopefully the chemotherapy and immunotherapy will give me a few more years. I pray for that. “We’ve always wanted to go to Disney and obviously, my time is limited now, so one thing we still want to do is get to Disney after my treatment is done. “People have been so generous on the JustGiving page. I don’t even know who some of the donors are, I wish I could thank them. I am so grateful, I can’t believe it. “If someone has a cough, just please go get them checked and don’t assume it’s just a Covid cough. “I hear so many people out there saying they have a Covid cough months after contracting Covid. I hear it so many times and just want people to check it out just in case. “I never thought for a minute that my cough would be cancer. I literally thought it was a Covid cough because that’s what they tell you. “There are a lot of people out there who are coughing and you just don’t get it. You don’t know if it’s something more serious, so just get it checked out, please.”
