'I was three days into our dream honeymoon when I discovered this terrifying symptom - I couldn't tell my new husband'
manchestereveningnews.co.ukThe moment a 29-year-old woman, just married, was left horrified to learn her nightmares were becoming real. After previous family illnesses, Emma Barker knew she carried the BRCA1 gene.
The inherited altered gene increases the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. And standing in a hotel room in Thailand, excitedly putting a bikini on to enjoy her honeymoon, Emma discovered a lump.
Immediately, the young woman had a hunch about what that lump meant – breast cancer, Emma told the Manchester Evening News. Overwhelmed with emotion but trying to keep smiling for her husband Tom, Emma took the agonising decision to keep the horrifying discovery a secret until she got home and could go to her GP.
After that, all hell broke loose. READ MORE: Piccadilly Gardens bus crash: Everything we know so far as ambulance service and police issue statement READ MORE: Bus crashes into building with major emergency service response - live updates “I was told in 2016 that I had the BRCA1 gene and I knew I had an increased risk of getting ovarian and breast cancer, but I was told that wouldn’t happen until I was 40-years-old,” said Emma. “The message I took away from the doctors was ‘go, live your life, have your babies and come back to us in 15 years’. “So my then-boyfriend and I started to put plans in place for that timeline.
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