Laura Palmer-Hukins, 36, lives in Pocklington, East Yorkshire with husband David, 37, and daughters Minnie, six, and Etta, four. After discovering in 2019 she carried a high-risk cancer gene, she decided to have her womb and ovaries removed.
Watching my daughters playing together, I felt a lump rise in my throat. They were my pride and joy and I loved every moment of seeing them grow up. But I was terrified that this privilege might be snatched away from me, leaving two little girls without a mother.
After losing my dad Terry to bowel cancer just three days before Christmas 2018, I discovered a few months later that I’d inherited a genetic mutation from him that put me at a higher risk of also developing the disease.
Known as Lynch syndrome, carriers have as much as an 80% greater chance of developing bowel cancer, often at a young age. It also increases the risk of a number of other cancers, and as a woman, this meant ovarian and womb cancer.
I was carrying the particularly high risk MSH2 gene, and there was a 50-50 chance that my girls, Minnie and Etta, had inherited it.
The statistics were terrifying, especially after seeing the pain my father had endured. But as hard as it was, I felt empowered to know that I carried this time bomb inside me.
We only found out Dad was a carrier of the mutation when it was too late, despite losing his own father to the disease. He was only 62 when he died. I pondered how things might have been different and how he might have survived had he been tested earlier.
‘MY BODY COULD BETRAY ME’
This story is from the April 03, 2023 edition of New UK.
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This story is from the April 03, 2023 edition of New UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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