Sally
My story began with the diagnosis and death of my mother back in 2000. Before Mum’s death, I had never considered cancer a risk for our
family. After she died, I began to worry that I might also one day succumb to this terrible disease. I ate very healthily, gave up bad habits, exercised and hoped for the best.
Mum only has one living female relative on her father’s side, and she too had had breast cancer as well as a number of other cancers too. To cut a long story short, we decided to have the genetic test. They tested my great aunt as she had been diagnosed and had survived all her cancers. They found no BRACA 1 or 2 in my great Aunt. I thought I was now at the same risk level as other women without genetic disposition to breast cancer; I breathed a sigh of relief and got on with life. It wasn’t until a few months later that my genetic counsellor rang me up to see how it was all going. As I had got my results directly from the people who did the test, I had not been counselled about them. The genetic counsellor asked me to come in and see them. She pointed out that I was in fact at a much greater risk of developing the disease than the average population due to our family history which they had traced back several generations and discovered cancer in every one. Our gene just hasn’t been identified yet. They gave me about a 30% chance of developing breast cancer.
I then went through the process of deciding what to do about it. In the end, as I have two little girls who I adore, aged 3 and 7, I decided to have a prophylactic mastectomy. I couldn’t stand the thought of them losing their Mum. I am currently going through reconstruction and am very happy I decided to do it. Although at times I have found the procedure very painful, I have got peace of mind and, hopefully, when it’s all over, some nice new boobs as well!
I feel very blessed that I got the choice to deal with my risk before I had a diagnosis and feel lucky that we have a type of genetic disease that has a solution. So many people aren’t as lucky as me.
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