When more cases of breast cancer are detected in families than expected, it can be due to inheriting such mutated genes, according to the NHS., external
An abnormal CHEK2 gene can, at the very least, double a person’s risk of breast cancer in their life, Breast Cancer Trials say.
“It was, ‘OK I’ve gone through it again. I’ve just got to tackle it head on, what will happen will happen’,” Kirsty said.
Later she was told she was in remission from that cancer, prompting her first fundraising efforts for the breast cancer ward at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley, where she was treated.
The 53-year-old has raised £11,500 for the unit since then.
But towards the end of last year, Kirsty said she began having pain in her shoulder.
By February she was feeling dizzy and bumping into things and saw a doctor who told her it was vertigo and prescribed painkillers.
“Luckily, I had a second opinion with nurses at my yearly health check-up later the same day who said ‘go straight to A&E, your blood pressure is through the roof’,” she remembered.
“I went and within 24 hours I was in a hospital bed being told I’ve got a brain tumour.”
