Screen Test

After being diagnosed with breast cancer in the same week, two Ottawa sisters are raising money for state of-the-art equipment that will help women like them.

- Andrew Duffy

REBECCA HOLLINGSWORTH and Mary Ellen Hughson are used to sharing everything. Born four years apart, the sisters grew up as the best of friends in Ottawa before pursuing careers in education and becoming mothers. More recently, they’ve spent early mornings, late evenings and weekends together at the ice rink, watching their five children play competitive hockey.

So when Hollingsworth was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2016 at the age of 44, she immediately thought of her younger sister, who had discovered a small lump on her breast a few months prior.

Hollingsworth took Hughson aside that day. “I said, ‘Mary Ellen, you have to get checked out—I didn’t even have a lump.’” Less than a week later, Hughson was diagnosed with the same disease as her sister: invasive ductal breast cancer.

Healthy eaters and avid volleyball players, the siblings were shocked by their diagnoses, especially since there was no family history of cancer. Extensive DNA testing revealed that their cases weren’t genetic but rather unlikely accidents of fate.