'I had a full hysterectomy so Icould see my girls grow up'

Mum-of-two Laura tells new why a deadly cancer gene led her to make the life-changing decision to go into medical menopause at 34

- ALEX LLOYD

Laura Palmer-Hukins, 36, lives in Pocklington, East Yorkshire with husband David, 37, and daughters Minnie, six, and Etta, four. After discovering in 2019 she carried a high-risk cancer gene, she decided to have her womb and ovaries removed.

Watching my daughters playing together, I felt a lump rise in my throat. They were my pride and joy and I loved every moment of seeing them grow up. But I was terrified that this privilege might be snatched away from me, leaving two little girls without a mother.

After losing my dad Terry to bowel cancer just three days before Christmas 2018, I discovered a few months later that I’d inherited a genetic mutation from him that put me at a higher risk of also developing the disease.

Known as Lynch syndrome, carriers have as much as an 80% greater chance of developing bowel cancer, often at a young age. It also increases the risk of a number of other cancers, and as a woman, this meant ovarian and womb cancer.

I was carrying the particularly high risk MSH2 gene, and there was a 50-50 chance that my girls, Minnie and Etta, had inherited it.

The statistics were terrifying, especially after seeing the pain my father had endured. But as hard as it was, I felt empowered to know that I carried this time bomb inside me.

We only found out Dad was a carrier of the mutation when it was too late, despite losing his own father to the disease. He was only 62 when he died. I pondered how things might have been different and how he might have survived had he been tested earlier.

‘MY BODY COULD BETRAY ME’