I inherited breast cancer gene from my DAD

Watching the hard-hitting storyline on Emmerdale about the Dingle family's BRCA2 agony struck a raw nerve for one daughter and her father.

- LYDIA VELJANOVSKI

Maria Culley, 34, inherited the gene mutation from her dad, Michael Culley, 77, and the ITV soap's coverage of the angst around whether or not to get tested led them to speak out about how they deal with living with the variant.

The nanny and retired engineer only discovered they carried BRCA2, which increases the risk of developing breast, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancer, when a letter arrived from Australia urging them to get checked following the death of a relative.

Now Maria, who made the brave decision to have a preventative double mastectomy last year, and Michael, who brought her up, are determined to raise awareness of BRCA2 in men.

She says: "I'd always thought that the transmission of BRCA2 was typically from mother to daughter, so I was gobsmacked when I was told I'd had it passed on to me by my dad.

"I'd never heard of it before, and not only that, the gene can also be passed from father to son."

Maria and Michael were both tested for BRCA2 after the surprise letter arrived from the Australian Health Service in 2018, advising them to get checked given family members had it.

Michael's sister Dawn Harris, who emigrated to Australia in 2010, had died of breast cancer in 2015, aged 71.

In 2021, her daughter, Karen Keirnan, also died from the disease, aged 57.

Maria passed the letter to her doctor, but only got tested in 2022 when she felt an itchy lump on her right breast.

"I made an appointment with my GP, Maria, of Silsden, in West Yorkshire, recalls. "The results for BRCA2 came back positive, but the lump results were negative as it was benign.

"Naturally, I was over the moon to find out I didn't have breast cancer, but I was devastated to discover I had the BRCA2 gene putting me at greater risk of breast cancer in the future.