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Emma’s Story

In 1996 my mum lost her 4 year battle with breast cancer aged just 46. Breast cancer has been a disease my family is all too familiar with, unfortunately.

Not only has my mum passed away with the disease, her eldest sister was also 42 when she was first diagnosed and subsequently years later had a further primary cancer in her remaining breast. My mum’s middle sister then developed the disease several years after. Thankfully my Aunts remain well and currently disease-free. Both of my Aunts had genetic testing on their tumours and they both have a Variant of Uncertain Significance on the BRCA 2 gene.

Emma
Emma

On my paternal family side, my Nan and 3 of her sisters also had breast cancer and sadly my Nan and one of her sisters died of the disease.

For me, it meant that I had annual screening from the age of 35 but I always felt it was going to be my destiny to get the disease and I pursued prophylactic surgery. In 2013 after a very long process, I had bilateral prophylactic mastectomies after being informed by my consultant that I had an 80% chance of developing the disease with our family history alone.

I have no regrets about the decision I made regarding the surgery, at times the recovery was more than I anticipated but with the great support, I had with my family and friends I was soon back to ‘normal’.

I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to have the surgery to minimise my risk of this awful disease that has taken so many from us.