When Jean shared a photo of her nails to Facebook, her friends noticed something alarming.

When Jean Williams Taylor shared a picture of her freshly painted nails to her Facebook page, she did so knowing something wasn’t quite right. Jean had a peculiar curvature of the nail, which she had developed over time, prompting her to ask her friends for advice.

“2 weeks ago i [sic] posted this pic on my wall asking if anyone had seen nails like this,” Jean shared on the social media platform, posting the original image as well.

After a few friends researched what curvy nails like hers could mean, they urged her to see a doctor in case it was the sign of a serious illness. She admitted that she initially thought her friends were being “a tad extreme”, but nevertheless made a visit to her local GP.

The UK mum and grandma was then “rushed for blood tests and a chest xray”.

“2 days later i got a phone call to go for a CT scan, 2 days later a PET scan and more blood test, the day later a breathing test on my lungs and a scan on my heart, the day later an MRI scan then a lung biopsy.”

“After a gruelling 2 weeks, yesterday I got my results…….Cancer in both my lungs !!!!” she wrote. In four days, her Facebook post has been shared over 200,000 times.

As Jean discovered, curved nails like hers (pictured above) can be linked to serious illnesses, such as heart and lung disease, with the official term being known as ‘nail clubbing’.

“I had no idea….Did You ????” she asked her followers.

Jean posted the photo to Facebook with the hope that “it can help someone else in the early stages of cancer.” Many commenters wrote thanking Jean for sharing her story, admitting they had never head of ‘nail clubbing’ either.