It’s a family affair

If you ever find yourself with a free afternoon in west London I can highly recommend taking a walk in Brompton Cemetery. It is beautiful and the final resting place of some wonderful people including some of my relatives.

Thinking about our family history is a good starting point for anyone thinking about genetic testing. Talking to relatives is a useful first step. Take notes to help you keep track. Good questions to ask include:

Ask about grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Ask if anyone had cancer?

If they had cancer do they know what age they were diagnosed?

Did they die from cancer or something else?

What age did they die?

When were they born?

If people don’t know exactly then even rough estimates can be helpful.

Talking to different family members can be helpful and you can then piece together the information. Some relatives may be reluctant to talk about how people died. It might help to explain that new advances in science mean that knowing about our family history and genes can help you and other family members take steps to protect their health.

Don’t forget to ask about your father’s side of the family too. You are just as likely to inherit a breast cancer risk gene from your father as your mother. I inherited my gene mutation that way and it often means people miss out on testing.

Death certificates can be helpful to confirm details. There is a free online register for England for deaths after 1837 and you can order copies of certificates online. The full certificate will include cause of death. The National Archives have great information on the options for doing this here.

Since I found my genetic mutation I feel a strangely stronger connection to my ancestors. Especially my paternal grandmother. She sadly died in her 50’s from metastatic breast cancer. I probably inherited my gene from her. I feel so lucky that I got a chance to reduce my breast cancer risk.

I strongly believe that we need to improve access to genetic testing. The current NHS testing criteria are estimated to miss at least half of people with a BRCA mutation.

But even with the current criteria most of the people eligible for testing have not been referred for testing. I hope that I can help by talking about genetics and testing to encourage more people to consider testing.

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