Man, 45, who developed lung cancer despite never smoking cigarette shares his only ‘silent’ symptom

The man was stunned due to his very active and healthy lifestyle

While it’s common knowledge that many lung cancer cases are caused by lifestyle habits such as smoking, one unfortunate healthy man was given the shocking diagnosis despite never having smoked in his life.

Father Chad Dunbar was left stunned back in 2022 when he was told that healthcare professionals believed he had lung cancer.

He had remarked that he felt his lungs were likely the healthiest part of him, and he had recently finished a rather impressive physical feat.

The 45-year-old from Utah was the cycling ride leader for the largest youth team in the United States for six years and only a week before his diagnosis, he had logged over 3,000 miles from cycling in the mountains.

In a video shared by cancer charity RETpositive, the 45 year-old explained how he found out he had cancer and his utter surprise at the diagnosis.

He said: “The nurse came in she’s like, ‘Hey, we think you have lung cancer’. I was thinking, man, there’s no way. I was doing 3,000 miles on my mountain bike every season and my lungs were probably the healthiest piece of me.

Chad Dunbar was surprised when he got his diagnosis due to his healthy lifestyle (LinkedIn/Chad Dunbar)

“You know it was surreal, it was denial, it was p**sed off, I’d get mad a lot… I had a lot of questions, ‘How, why me?’”

The video clip was first posted on YouTube back in 2024, and the charity said that by this point, the cancer had spread ‘to his brain, liver, bones and lymph nodes near his heart’.

In a follow-up video, Dunbar admitted that the main symptom he had was rather subtle and a surprising one at that.

He wrote that his only symptom was ‘pain and swelling in my calf’ and initially thought he had over-worked a muscle – only to be told he had stage 4 cancer.

Symptoms for lung cancer can vary in severity but some of the most common ones are a persistent cough, coughing up blood, breathlessness and unexplained tiredness.

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has said that 70 percent of lung cancer cases are caused by smoking but in Chad’s cancer stemmed from a RET mutation, which is a change in a gene that helps cells grow.

Chad is optimistic about his future, despite the diagnosis (YouTube/RETpositive)

In this case, his cells were faulty and grew out uncontrollably, which led to lung cancer. And lung cancer caused by a RET mutation can spread to other parts of the body, including the bones in the legs.

This can lead to pain, weakness, or even fractures in the legs, making it hard to walk or stand.

Dunbar has remained optimistic about his future despite getting a rather bleak prediction from his doctors.

In March of last year, his doctors gave him a five percent chance of living over five years.

He said: “I thought, ‘Hey, you know what? Freaking five percent, I’ll take those odds.”