STARK CHOICE FACING TV TERRI If DNA test shows I’m high risk I’ll have my breasts & womb removed... I don’t want to die at 44 like my mum

ACTRESS Terri Dwyer faces an agonising wait to find if she has the same ovarian cancer gene that killed her mother.

The former Hollyoaks star, 43, has vowed to have a life-changing double mastectomy and hysterectomy if doctors tell her if she is at high risk.

Terri – who is fronting an ovarian cancer campaign on ITV’s Lorraine show tomorrow – was turned down by the NHS for the DNA test she needs.

Battle

But she is determined to find a way to have it because she wants to ensure she is around to watch her sons Caiden, 11, and Kyland, seven, grow up. And she is prepared to undergo the drastic surgery that will prevent her getting ovarian cancer if it proves to be necessary. Terri, who played Ruth Osborne in Hollyoaks for six years, lost both her parents to cancer and has also been battling skin cancer. She said: “Within the next year, I am going to be 44. That’s the same age my mum was when she died. “I keep thinking about all the things she missed out on by having her life cut so short and how much I wish she was around to talk to. I don’t want my boys to go through the same loss. I want to be there to see them and my grandkids grow up. I’d be having the test for them, not me.

“I have already thought about what would happen if the test was positive – if it was I would have a hysterectomy and mastectomy. Nobody wants to have their womb and boobs removed. It’s horrendous. But my boys never met my parents and I don’t want to disappear from their lives.”

Terri told how she went to her GP to ask for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 test.

Hollywood legend Angelina Jolie underwent the same test after the death of her mother and then elected to have a double mastectomy and later a hysterectomy.

Patients testing positive for the genetic mutation have a 87 per cent risk of developing breast cancer and a 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer.

Terri was referred to a genetics clinic, where she had to give her family medical history. To her dismay, she failed to meet the eligibility criteria to have the test on the NHS.

She said: “It’s crazy that I didn’t meet the criteria – I don’t know why. My nana died young as well, aged 50, so you’d have thought I’d be at risk – but I wasn’t quite high risk enough. “The NHS guidelines have to be stringent or everyone would be getting tested. But at the end of the day it boils down to money. “Not only does the test cost a lot, but if lots of women tested positive and decided to have mastectomies and hysterectomies, that would be even more cash the NHS had to find.” She is now planning to seek out the test privately but insists it should be more readily available to women. Terri said: “It’s not a simple case of picking up the phone and asking for the test. I’ve already contacted a private health care provider but they haven’t provided me with a simple answer about where I can have it done. I still have a mortgage to pay and a family, so the cost will be significant. “It should be far more readily available and free of charge – but I am going to pursue this.” Terri played Ruth on the Channel 4 soap from