Light at the end of a long health battle
LAURA Alford is hoping a double mastectomy will be the final step in a long, exhausting health battle that has affected her whole family.
Her world was rocked when she was first told she would have to choose between herself or her unborn child in 2016.
But since that devastating diagnosis, the family has been able to celebrate many happy milestones it once thought might not be possible.
Little baby Alfie, who the family calls their miracle, has grown into a healthy, fun-loving child, celebrating his first birthday in March.
Mrs Alford also celebrated one year being cancer-free.
In April, she officially became Mrs Alford, marrying her longterm partner Cameron, with all three of their children in tow.
The discovery of a CDH1 gene mutation, a hereditary syndrome that heightens the risk of stomach cancer in men and women and breast cancer in women, started the family’s devastating chain of events.
Mrs Alford not only had the gene, but was diagnosed with gastric cancer while 19 weeks pregnant with her third child.
Doctors advised her to terminate the pregnancy. Mrs Alford made the brave decision to carry her baby to 32 weeks.
The mother gave birth to Alfie, eight weeks premature, on March 6 last year.
She had her stomach removed within a week of giving birth.
Mrs Alford’s pathology results confirmed she was officially cancer-free about four weeks later.
Eighteen months on, Mrs Alford, better known as The Gutsy Mummy, is about to get rid of the gene mutation that has haunted her and her family.
The last step to eradicate herself of the CDH1 gene mutation is a double mastectomy. She is currently on a waiting list for this preventive procedure.
“I don’t want to be told I have cancer again, to go through all of those emotions in another couple of years,” she said.
“I am eliminating the risk of cancer.
“It’s kind of like you’re losing another part of you — your femininity. But it’s better losing a part than losing the whole thing.”
Read Mrs Alford’s story in gt, in the Weekend Geelong Advertiser.
Take a look inside Laura and Cameron’s wedding in GT BRIDE, out tomorrow.