An ICU nurse who was eight when her mum died from breast cancer and is desperate to see her sons grow up has had life-changing surgery to remove her breasts and ovaries after inheriting the BRCA1 gene mutation making her more susceptible to cancer in both. Ruth Cookson, 34, lost her own mother Monika Harrison in 1996, aged just 41.
But her own fear of dying young only hit after her first son Seb, nine, was born in July 2012, prompting her to go for genetic testing a few months later in September. Ruth, who has another relative who is a breast cancer survivor, was told she had the BRCA1 gene mutation in December 2012, which increased her risk of developing breast cancer to 80 per cent and ovarian cancer to 45 per cent and decided she would have preventative surgery to remove her breasts and ovaries once her family was complete.
Now mum to Seb, Lucas, eight, and Theo, four, Ruth, who lives with them and their physiotherapist dad Patrick Cookson, 40, in Bristol, said: “My risk of breast cancer has reduced from 80 per cent down to less than the population risk, at around 12 per cent, and my risk of ovarian cancer is now zero because I don’t have any ovaries. I feel like I can finally breathe.
