LIKE MOTHER LIKE SON

When Martina Moore, 57, found out her son had a rare health condition, she understood exactly what he was going through

- ASHLEIGH PAGE

As my husband George, then 39, and I sat either side of our son Chris, 11, we all listened in silence as the doctor spoke. ‘Chris has familial adenomatous polyposis,’ he explained.

Almost immediately I broke down in tears, utterly devastated by the diagnosis. But as I looked at Chris, he didn’t look frightened or upset. The doctor didn’t need to explain the condition to us - as a family, we knew all about it. I’d had FAP for years and that was why I was so distraught – because the thought of Chris going through what I had, terrified me.

I was 26, and had not long given birth to Chris in August 1990, when I was told that I had FAP – a rare genetic condition that causes hundreds of abnormal tissue growths on the colon. There’s no cure and other than regular monitoring and surgery to remove polyps, sufferers just need to learn to live with it.

My father had been diagnosed years before, which had prompted me to get tested.

URGENT SURGERY

The doctor had told me that, left untreated, the abnormal growths could turn cancerous. I was also told that there was a 50% chance that Chris also had the condition, and he’d be tested when he started puberty. I needed surgery straight away to remove all the growths from my intestines and I was given an ileostomy – where the small bowel is diverted through an opening in the tummy, and emptied into a stoma bag.

I struggled with it, though – my weight plummeted to 5st and I was hospitalised multiple times for dehydration. This made it difficult to care for Chris, so in the end I had the procedure reversed, which made my condition much more manageable.