‘Cancer gene test saved my life’
Teacher has same mutation as Angelina Jolie
A mum with the same deadly gene for cancer as Angelia Jolie says knowing she had it saved her life.
Allington Primary School teacher Alison Collie found out she had the rare BRCA1 mutation after she was diagnosed with cancer while pregnant with her second child, Dylan.
Since then, having fought off the disease twice and knowing her risk of it returning, she has had a hysterectomy and her ovaries removed.
Reflecting on her decision to have treatment during her initial cancer diagnosis, Alison, from Maidstone, said: “I was just 28 and newly pregnant with my second child when I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“It was a very worrying time and an awful decision to have to make.
“There just wasn’t the research around then to know what to do.
“We had a fantastic team at Maidstone Hospital who supported us and we went with the chemotherapy, based on the limited research that was available. It was the right decision.”
After she was diagnosed, Ali
son went on to discover that she carries the faulty BRCA mutation.
“Because of my age, they decided to test my blood for the faulty gene,” She explained. “Back then, the technology just wasn’t able to detect anything –soactuallyitcamebackasa non-carrier.
“The doctors were so convinced that it was a mutation, they sent my blood over to America. It was a very long process, but did turn out that I was a carrier of the BRCA1 gene mutation.”
Around one in 20 (5%) of the 50,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer every year carries an inherited gene fault like
BRCA1. Women with BRCA1 have a 65 to 79% lifetime risk of breast cancer and a 36 to 53% risk of ovarian cancer before the age of 80.
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, who also has BRCA1, announced in 2013 that she underwent a double mastectomy based on her positive test for the gene, aged just 37. It came after the death of her own mother, who lost her fight with ovarian cancer.
Alison says finding out about the rare deadly gene saved her life, her family’s, and future generations.
She said: “The mutation gives you an increased risk of ovarian cancer, but not until your mid 40s.
“I decided before that stage in my life to have an elective hysterectomy and ovary removal.
“Both ovaries were found to be cancerous, so I underwent further surgery and another course of chemotherapy. Had I waited until my mid 40s, I probably wouldn’t be here today.”
Alison added: “It is definitely better knowing, because you have choices – like the choice to have preventative surgery.
“They are not easy choices, at all, but you do have them. And so many people don’t have those choices, which is why Cancer
Research UK is so important to my family. All of my children are aware of the faulty gene. I actually inherited it from my father, so it doesn’t just run down the maternal line.
“It’s equally as important for boys and girls to find out – or not, if they choose not to – but the implications are the same with passing it onto their offspring.”
Two of her cousins have also
been successfully treated for breast cancer.
Her son Dylan, now 19, was the guest of honour at the Maidstone Race for Life at Mote Park on Sunday and sounded the horn to start the event.
The teenager, inspired by his mum’s bravery, is running 5km a day for a year to raise money for the charity which has helped her, Cancer Research UK.
Alison said: “It’s inspirational and humbling, seeing him every day without fail, up and out the door running, working it around his job. I’m very proud.”
Dylan started the challenge in October and has raised nearly £2,700. By the time the sports psychology student finishes, he will have run 1,825km, the same distance as Maidstone to Munich and back. n To sponsor Dylan visit www. tinyurl.com/dylanKMG