Krystal's Family History

Photographer: Alana Landsberry (Womens Weekly)

Some things run in families like a musical talent, or the colour of your eyes. In my family 4 generations of women have faced breast cancer, each at an increasingly earlier age.  This is due to the rogue gene fault BRCA1, which was discovered only a decade ago and increases a carrier’s chances of developing breast cancer anywhere up to 85%. It is like an ancient family curse. We know my great great grandmother died from secondary cancer (families research indicated it started in the breast)... the cancer has been passed down through every generation since.

My great grandmother Annie died aged 74 from breast cancer. At the same time her daughter Val, Krystal’s grandmother, was nursing her and discovered she too had breast cancer.

Val overcame the disease twice at ages 44 and 54 but never thought she would nurse her only daughter Julie, Krystal’s mum, through the same disease. But at age 36 Julie became the 4th generation of women in this family to face breast cancer.

I always knew my risk of breast cancer was very high, but it was not until I found out I carried the BRCA1 gene fault that it really hit me. My family's breast cancer history is quite rare but I have met some people who have similar histories. When I was younger I thought I was the only one. I started to do charity work for the National Breast Cancer Foundation and through that I gained the courage and determination to speak about my family history and try to make a difference.

Its been a difficult journey coming to terms with my family history and then my BRCA diagnosis. In a sense I felt very empowered having this knowledge but at the same time I felt anger, when will this cancer in our family end. 

Since having my two beautiful boys Riley and Jye, I have become anxious about the thought of being taken away from them, that's why I made a difficult choice. Please read through the other sections to see my decision process and why I decided to have a double mastectomy at age 25.