Primrose Patient Paula Shares Her Story

Hello, my name is Paula & this is my story.

At the age of eleven, I sadly lost my dear Mum to breast cancer, she was only 36, no age to be taken from her family- I decided from then that moment that I would not let cancer define me. Fast forward 18 years later to me being 29 and having a baby and family of my own, I received a letter from my cousin informing me that she too had been diagnosed with breast cancer and that there was a strong family history of breast cancer running through my family. She tested positive to having the BRCA gene and suggested that both myself & my two sisters were tested too.

We all decided that this was not something we could ignore and so we planned to be tested, unfortunately for me the test came back positive for BRCA 2. As you can imagine I was devastated, I was only 30 at the time and had a young baby to care for. I decided to undergo the preventative measures suggested as I didn’t want my daughter to grow up without her Mum like I did.

My surgeon was amazing, he talked me through the whole procedure and explained in detail what was going to happen, I just wanted the surgery done and in July 2005 I underwent my first mastectomy procedure. The surgery was a complete success, I had my right breast done first than 3 months later my surgeon removed the other breast and I had reconstructive surgery at the same time.

I honestly cannot fault my surgeon or all the staff in primrose, they all do such an amazing job. I consider myself really lucky as I had so much support from my family, friends, and my partner Pete, I couldn’t have got through it all without them. My daughter was of course paramount to my recovery, she was my reason for going through with the procedure and my focus when recovering.

In 2013 I went on to have a total hysterectomy too as the type of gene I have also has an increased risk of ovarian cancer too, oh the joys of BRCA!!

I will always be eternally grateful for everything Primrose has done for me and I do what I can to support The Primrose Foundation.  Instead of giving out Christmas cards every year in my workplace we raise money, they are such a fantastic charity so many women rely on Primrose, I might not be here now if it wasn’t for them.

I would urge anyone with a high risk of cancer in their family to get tested. I knew before I had the test done that It would be positive, so many people used to tell me I was just like my mum, now when I look back on everything I went through I’m actually quite thankful for being BRCA- I had a chance to turn something negative into something positive, how many people get that sort of chance in life?? It is now 15 years since my surgeries and if I had to do it all again I would in a heartbeat.

My daughter cannot get tested until she reaches 18 and if she ever decides she wants to get tested I will be there for her every step of the way.