I'm so worried, does anyone know what this means please?

[LiveLifeToTheFull2]

My Mum is a lifelong smoker, and has asthma and COPD.
I've grown up knowing the damage she is doing and she has tried to quit many many times with various resources but can never stick to it. She is fully aware of the consequences of what smoking does to her body.

She had a chest x Ray a few weeks ago due to a horrendous non stop cough and they have phoned today saying she is being booked for a CT scan as the x Ray shows 'Irreparable damage to the lower bronchial'
She has related these words back to me from the doctor so I'm not entirely sure if the wording is correct but I just wondered if anyone can tell me what this actually means please?

Obviously I am super worried it's showing she has Lung Cancer but I guess my question is can it be damaged like that if it's not actually cancer?
Could COPD show up as irreparable damage on an x Ray?
Or is this very likely cancer?

Thank you for reading 😔

COPD definitely can show on a chest X-ray. And it sadly is not a reversible disease, unlike asthma where inflammation flares up but settles down again.

The wording your mum has given you is not the typical language of X-ray reports so I suspect it isn't word for word what is on the report.

It is good she is having further tests to find out what is happening, unfortunately as you already know lung cancer is always a risk with smoking.