When Kevin's daughter, novelist Kath O'Connor, died, the family weren't silent about their loss

Kevin O'Connor is the father of Kath O'Connor, whose novel about two women who share a cancer-causing gene, was published posthumously this year. (ABC RN: Anna Kelsey-Sugg)

Kevin O'Connor has lived close to cancer for almost all his life.

A mutated gene, the BRCA1, which increases the chance of developing cancer, is "rampaging" through his family, he says.