Hearing the word cancer strikes fear in nearly everyone. Most women dread breast cancer, but lung cancer is the deadliest enemy for women and men. The stunning reality is it’s no longer a smoker’s disease as many families are learning the hard way.

NewsCenter 5 anchor Heather Unruh’s mother Dee was diagnosed with lung cancer two years ago.

“I felt I needed to prop you two up. And your dad,” Dee said about the day she had to tell her daughters and husband what the doctors had found.

The news was especially stunning because Dee Unruh does not smoke.

“There is a stigma. No matter what. And the first question people always ask is, ‘Do you smoke?’ or they’d say, ‘But you don’t smoke,’” she said.

Neither do 60 percent of new patients, experts said.