“The biggest [misconception] is that lung cancer only happens to smokers,” Mayya Grinberg tells PEOPLE. “I never smoked”

NEED TO KNOW

• For months, a North Carolina mother of three felt “dismissed” as her persistent cough and extreme fatigue were attributed to postpartum recovery
• It wasn’t until a Mother’s Day emergency room visit in May 2025 that Mayya Grinberg was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer
• Today, the 40-year-old is committed to raising awareness about the disease online

After giving birth to her second child in July 2024, Mayya Grinberg expected the sleepless nights and exhaustion that often come with caring for a newborn. But what she didn't expect was the nagging feeling that "something was off."

At the time, the then 39-year-old had started developing a “weird, throat-clearing” cough and was experiencing unexplained weight loss and overwhelming fatigue — all of which were repeatedly brushed off as “normal” postpartum recovery. Still, she couldn't shake the sense that her body was trying to warn her of something doctors couldn't see.

“I remember lying in bed at night next to my baby's bassinet thinking something was very wrong,” Grinberg tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I even worried I would not see my kids grow up, but I honestly thought it was postpartum anxiety making me spiral. Looking back, my body knew something before my brain did.”

@mayyapapayya6

10 things I learned too late about lung cancer: Save this because you really never know who might need to hear it. 1. If you have lungs, you can get lung cancer. That’s really it. Young mom, healthy, a into fitness, never smoked, it dont matter as much as people think. 2. Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer. More people die from lung cancer than breast, colon, and pancreatic cancers put together. For women, it takes way too many lives too. But somehow people dont talk about it enough. 3. You do NOT need a smoking history. A lot of people are shocked to hear this, but many people with lung cancer never smoked. It happens alot more than people realize, especially in women and younger women. 4. Pregnancy/postpartum can hide symptoms. For me, people thought it was just being a tired new mom. Hormones, stress, postpartum stuff, all of it got blamed on that. And honestly, I believed it to. 5. The symptoms can be really hard to notice. Mine seemed small at first. Allergies. Heartburn. A little cough. Feeling tired in a weird way. Not gaining enough pregnancy weight. Nothing really made me think “this is serious,” which is kinda the scary part. 6. “You’re too young” is not a diagnosis. And neither is “it’s probably nothing.” If something feels wrong, keep asking questions even if people brush it off. 7. If treatment isn’t helping, ask more questions. If allergy medicine isn’t helping, or reflux medicine isnt helping, or things just keep feeling weird, go back and ask again. 8. One doctor believing you can change everything. One doctor finally listened to me. One ordered scans. One changed my whole life, even though I wish things had happened sooner. 9. Second opinions are not rude. Good doctors want answers too. A good doctor shouldnt be upset if you want another opinion. 10. Trust yourself a little more. I kept telling myself my symptoms had normal reasons because thats what made sense at the time. But I wish I listened more to that little voice in my head saying something wasnt right. I’m not posting this to scare anybody. I’m posting this because if even one person asks more questions sooner, or gets a second opinion, or realizes lung cancer doesn’t always have a certain “look,” then maybe something good can come from all this. #lungcancer #cancer #cancerawareness

♬ Self Aware – Temper City

By late April 2025, Grinberg's symptoms refused to go away, and so she scheduled an appointment with her primary care physician in hopes of finally getting some answers. 

“Lung cancer was not even remotely on my radar,” she admits. 

As someone who never smoked, exercised regularly, ate healthy and considered herself low-risk for serious illness, Grinberg assumed there had to be a far more ordinary explanation for what she was experiencing. Yet, her visit left her more “frustrated” and “dismissed” than reassured.

“My general physician thought it was probably allergies or heartburn,” Grinberg recalls. “I was told my weight loss was ‘great' after having a baby, even though I was not trying to lose weight. I was told everybody is different and to try Mucinex and hot showers.”

At urgent care, the first round of testing failed to reveal the true cause of her symptoms since nothing immediately suggested a life-threatening illness.

“My chest X-ray did not show a clear tumor. My bloodwork looked perfect,” Grinberg explains. “There was just some haze in my lungs, so they thought maybe pneumonia and gave me antibiotics.”

The diagnosis seemed plausible, but the treatment didn't help. Days later, her condition continued to worsen, leaving her more convinced that something had been missed.

By Mother's Day 2025, Grinberg faced a choice between spending the day celebrating with her family or seeking medical attention once again — a decision that would ultimately change everything.

“I went back to urgent care alone while my husband stayed home with our kids,” she recalls, and in a rare twist of fate, Grinberg was seen by the same urgent care physician who had treated her previously.

Although many of her test results still appeared relatively normal, the doctor listened carefully and ordered additional bloodwork out of concern for something more serious. 

When those results came back significantly abnormal, Grinberg was sent directly to the emergency room.

At the ER, doctors initially suspected a pulmonary embolism and ordered a CT scan. Instead, the imaging revealed a mass in Grinberg's chest, and additional scans later found cancer in her lymph nodes, lung lining and bones.

The diagnosis became official later that same month after a biopsy confirmed stage 4 ALK-positive lung cancer, a rare subtype that accounts for less than 5% of lung cancer cases and is more commonly found in younger people and never-smokers.

“I remember thinking, ‘How is this possible?'” Grinberg recalls. “I had a 3-year-old son and a 7-month-old baby. Would I see my kids grow up? Would I even live long enough to hear my baby say 'mama' for the first time?”

What shocked her almost as much as the diagnosis itself was how little she fit the stereotype of a lung cancer patient. “I had never smoked. I exercised constantly. I cooked healthy food. I did everything ‘right,'” Grinberg tells PEOPLE. “And still, here I was.”

Looking back on those early weeks, Grinberg says one of the hardest parts to get over was how long it took for a doctor to take her concerns seriously. “Everything looked mostly okay. My bloodwork looked good. I looked healthy. I was a young mom,” she says. “I think people naturally wanted to believe it was something simple. But I knew my body.”

While the experience reinforced the importance of self-advocacy, it also left her deeply grateful for the provider who continued searching for answers when the initial tests didn't point to anything alarming. “That doctor listened when things still looked mostly normal,” Grinberg says of the urgent care physician who sent her to the ER. “I think about her all the time.”

Today, Grinberg receives a combination of chemotherapy and targeted therapy designed specifically for her cancer subtype, which she expects to remain on indefinitely unless it stops working. And with July marking two years since her symptoms first appeared, cancer remains a part of her daily life, but so does motherhood.

“Cancer changed everything and nothing at the same time,” Grinberg says. “I still have to be a mom. My kids still need breakfast. Laundry still exists. Life keeps moving. But the way I see time is completely different.”

Living with an incurable diagnosis has forced her to make peace with uncertainty, something she describes as one of the most difficult aspects of her journey.

“I stopped asking, ‘How long do I have?' and started asking, ‘Who do I want to be while I'm here?'” Grinberg admits. “I want to be the mom my kids feel deeply loved by, whether I live to 45 or 95. I want them to know my love so clearly that they carry it forever.”

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Grinberg now shares her experience online to raise awareness about lung cancer in younger patients and never-smokers, while encouraging others to trust themselves when something doesn't feel right.

“I acted quickly. I went to doctors. I pushed for answers. Things moved fast, and it was still stage 4,” Grinberg emphasizes. “That is the scary truth about lung cancer. It is often silent until it has already spread.”

Still, Grinberg hopes people will remember the lesson she learned through her own experience: when something feels wrong, it's worth continuing to ask questions. And while the future remains uncertain, she refuses to let that define her life.

“You can still have joy. You can still have purpose. You can still build a beautiful life inside uncertainty,” Grinberg tells PEOPLE. “I am still planning for the future. I fully plan to embarrass my kids for many, many years.”

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