Breast Cancer Awareness Month- Kate's Story

The Oatley family (Left to right): Felix (Kate's nephew),
Kate, Robin Salter (Grandad),
Betty Salter (Grandma), Moral Napier (brother in law) and
Hannah Oatley (Sister.)

For the rest of October, Colosoul will be raising awareness of Breast Cancer in commemoration of Breast Cancer month. Breast Cancer has affected many members of our Colosoul staff through the forms of a family member or a friend. Each week we will be bringing a story from one of our team members who has had someone go through this terrible disease. The first is from our Colosoul editor Kate Oatley. This is her story..... 

Breast cancer has always seemed to be one of the most confronting forms of cancer around. Even though I know that unlike other forms of cancer such as lung cancer, women and men can overcome breast cancer and frequently do.

However, Breast Cancer threatens to take away from a woman something that lung cancer does not: her femininity.

That's what I thought when I was younger and realised there is a history of breast cancer in my family. Even before I considered the idea that breast cancer could kill me, the idea of losing my breasts, and probably my ovaries and womb as well was in many ways more terrifying. Isn't that what makes a person female? What happens to my identity if I lose them?

It's strange that those thoughts went through my head, really, because I've never been particularly attached to my breasts- several times I've considered having breast surgery- and I don't want to have children. When I think about it, it's not the actual losing of those parts of my body that's the issue here, it's that it wouldn't be my choice. I'm not happy with my breasts, but if they're going to change, it has to be my choice, not some disease coming in and deciding for me.

I'm in a different position to a lot of people connected to breast cancer: I have not lived with someone who has actively had it. My grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer in her sixties, but that was way before my time. I've heard stories of how she overcame it, and I can see the fear on my mother's face as she approaches the same age.

That's where the fear for me comes in: what would I do if my mother got breast cancer? How would I handle it? And the afterthought: does that mean I will get it too?

For me, the only way to deal with breast cancer is to know everything about it, and that includes knowing whether I am likely to get it. That's why I'm planning to take a test to see if I carry a mutates BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene, something that would increase my own chances of developing breast cancer by 65%.

Getting that test, no matter what the result, it will change my life. If it's negative, I can continue with my life in the same way as I always have, just getting the normal check ups and hoping to God I don't have to face fighting breast cancer.

But if I do... That will change my whole perception of my body. My breasts, my ovaries, my uterus, they will all become ticking time bombs, and the more I think about the horrific ordeals that women and men fighting breast cancer have to go through, and their families, the more I know I could never keep them. And that's ok, because to remove a risk like that will not make me any less of a woman.

I'm choosing to get that test, and I'm choosing to do something about it before breast cancer strikes me if I need to.

It's my choice.