This will help my little girl prepare if the worst happens
A MOTHER who had a double mastectomy after discovering she had the BRCA1 gene said the breakthrough will give her daughter hope.
Carly Perkins, 33, was tested for the breast cancer gene after her own mother battled the disease twice.
She had surgery to remove both her breasts in 2013, but worries for the future of her six-year-old daughter Tilly.
The latest research means her daughter should have more accurate information about her exact risk from the BRCA1 gene, because of greater knowledge of its genetic variants.
Miss Perkins, from the village of Turners Hill in West Sussex, said: ‘These studies will be massive for my daughter’s future, and she might not have to go through what I went through. It is too late for me, but now there is hope for her.’
The shop assistant’s mother, Julie, was first diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 1 , and her aunt found out soon afterwards that she had ovarian cancer. Julie decided to get tested for the BRCA1 gene and was found positive five years ago. She then found a lump which turned out to be breast cancer again, but made a full recovery.
Miss Perkins said: ‘I didn’t know anything about the gene, so I was strangely relaxed about it.
‘It was only when I was sitting in front of the consultant, who told me I could have my breasts removed, that I realised how serious it was.
‘Knowing that the average person in the street has a 15 per cent risk of getting breast cancer, and that I have a 5 per cent chance, makes me feel I did the right thing. But I am glad my daughter will hopefully know more about her risk when she is old enough to be tested.’