I’ve no regrets about my breast op to beat cancer
A GLASGOW councillor says she has no regrets about undergoing a double mastectomy at 40 because it gives her the chance, “to be here for my children for as long as possible.”
Elspeth Kerr was told in her 30s that she had a 90% chance of developing breast cancer because her granny died of the disease at 49 and her aunty was also diagnosed in her forties.
Elspeth, who is SNP councillor for Drumchapel/Anniesland, has now radically reduced that risk to just 5% by undergoing the surgery after testing positive for the BRCA1 gene.
Her daughters, Alexis, 21, and Bryony, 19, are also at risk of having the gene. While doctors recommend women wait until they have completed their families before having the test, Bryony has said she would like to be tested sooner rather than later and Elspeth, 45, says she will support her.
Elspeth said: “My breasts don’t define me as a woman. They are just a part of my body.
“They told me if you have got breasts you have a 90% chance of getting breast cancer.
“I wouldn’t exactly say it was an easy decision but it you are told that keeping a part of a body might risk your life, then why would you keep it.
“It’s a part that can be removed. It’s not like an arm and a leg.
“My daughters have both said if they have to have a double mastectomy when they are older, they will do it. It is a worry but at the same time, I am still alive.”
Elspeth’s two older sisters do not have the ‘faulty’ gene but her younger sister does, although she has not had surgery yet at 40.
Actress Angelina Jolie famously underwent a preventive double mastectomy at the age of 38 after doctors discovered she carried the BRCA1 and had roughly an 87 percent risk of contracting breast cancer.
Elspeth also had surgery to remove her ovaries when she was 38, plunging her into menopause and says she sought support from a Glasgow charity COPE prior to the surgery to cope with emotional aspects.
Elspeth, who lives in Drumchapel, said: “I had actually made the decision to do this before it came out that Angelina Jolie was doing it so I joke that she copied me.
“My maternal gran, May, died at the age of 49 of breast cancer. My mum’s sister, Carol Withers, got breast cancer about 15 years ago and is doing well. After that, my mum’s two sisters decided they would get tested for the BRCA 2 gene which came back positive.
“The advice I was given was to have my ovaries out as soon as possible so I got that done when I was 38.
“The ovaries coming out meant that they weren’t supplying oestrogen to the breasts, which is what feeds the cancer.
“I am diabetic which for me made the decision easier. I had already been sterilised because I had two healthy kids and considered myself incredibly lucky. Many (Type 1) diabetics don’t get that.”
Although Elspeth has prosthetics, she says she rarely wears them and opted not to have reconstructive surgery.
She said: “If I wear them on a night out, I usually end up taking them (the prosthetics) out and passing them around for a laugh.
“There are times I get down about it but mostly it doesn’t bother me at all.
“My husband Ian has been absolutely brilliant and supportive through all of it.
“I count myself very lucky that I have been able to have this choice.”
ww.cope-scotland.org