How a breakthrough in Breast Cancer Research
is saving women's lives -
"What I didn't know then was that it was a breakthrough Breast Cancer scientist that discovered the faulty BRAC gene" -
Laura tested positive for a BRAC2 gene and shares how having a diagnosis of breast cancer has encouraged her to fund raise for valuable research for others.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had a Lump removed followed by chemotherapy and along the way tested positive for the faulty BRAC2 2 gene. This meant I had an 85% chance of the Cancer returning so I opted to have a double mastectomy with reconstruction at the same time.
My husband, Alan is a boxing promoter and has always had charity auctions raising money for organisations at his shows. I felt I wanted to do
something to try and make sense of everything that had happened to me and my family, at the same
time I didn't want to take anything away from the charity's we had always collected for so I asked Alan if
I could try to auction a bouquet of pink flowers at the boxing shows! I wasn't sure how it would go down
as it's quite an unusual item to auction at a boxing show the usual item would have been Mohamed Ali's
boxing glove or the like.
Unfortunately I couldn't attend the show as I was in the middle of chemo however I was amazed when Alan
came home and told me we had raised over £500. I decided to donate the money to Breakthrough Breast Cancer
as I'd seen the pink collection pots in my local M&S and I have since continued to raise money by auctioning the flowers
at each boxing show and sending some lovely friends round the crowd in the interval with collection buckets and
unbelievably I have now raised around £30.000
What I didn't know then was that it was a breakthrough Breast Cancer scientist that discovered the faulty BRAC gene. Without that discovery and the knowledge gained I and many other women would not be surviving today. I believe that's more than coincidence! Although the journey you have to travel through treatment is difficult and long there is a life after for most of us so please grab it with both hands and enjoy every single second of it.
Laura Moltlake