'I’m having a double mastectomy at 25 because my mum has had cancer 4 times'

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• published: 11 Jul 2016
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A brave 25-year-old has scheduled a double mastectomy and hysterectomy after discovering she is likely to get cancer . Shanie Fitzpatrick was told she had the BRCA cancer gene - which Angelina Jolie also has - and so opted to have surgery. The gene means the IT account manager from Basingstoke, Hampshire, has an 80% chance of developing breast cancer in her lifetime, and a 60% chance of developing ovarian cancer. Shanie and her sister Kerrie-Ann, 28, a mum-of-two, were tested for gene after their mum June battled cancer four times in 20 years and sadly passed away from the disease on July 5, 2014.hanie said: “When my mum was diagnosed with cancer for the fourth time, we knew it couldn’t be a coincidence. “It was heart-wrenching to see how quickly her health deteriorated after her fourth diagnosis, and my sister and I wanted to make sure her children and my future children didn’t have to go through the same thing.” Shanie and Kerrie-Ann were screened for the gene, as well as their mum June and both maternal grandparents. They discovered that although Shanie, her mum and her granddad tested positive for the gene, her sister Kerrie-Ann and grandma did not have it.Shanie said: “Although I was devastated to find out that I had the gene, I’m glad it wasn’t my sister because she already has two children who she could have passed it onto.” If one parent has the gene, their children have a 50% of carrying it too, and could develop breast or ovarian cancer in girls and pancreatic cancer in boys.Now Shanie faces the gruelling mastectomy op, which she will have on the NHS in December with six weeks off work. What’s more, she and her partner of five years, Stuart Steele, 26, an IT worker, must now decide whether to freeze embryos before she has a hysterectomy - which will send her into early menopause.She said: “I want to have the operation as soon as possible, because with every day that goes by it’s more likely that I’ll get cancer. “It’s forced Stuart and I to make decisions about children which wouldn’t have ordinarily crossed our minds for a few years.”Women who freeze their embryos have a 27% chance of having a baby, according to one study, while the chances of successful egg freezing range between 60% and 10% according to different studies. Shanie said: “It’s devastating to think that I’ll probably hit the menopause before 30, but the alternative isn’t worth thinking about.”