A city councillor who had a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with a cancer-causing gene mutation aged 31 has made an urgent call to the Government for enhanced health screening supports.
Councillor Fiona Ryan of Cork City Council decided to have the surgery after doctors told her a rare gene mutation left her facing an 80 per cent greater risk of developing breast cancer.
The Solidarity-People Before Profit councillor also expects to have her ovaries removed in the future, as a further preventative and precautionary measure.
Cllr Ryan told Cork’s 96FM she was now on the mend and had returned to politics.
She said that women need to be provided with every possible opportunity for health screenings, in order to make as informed decisions as possible for their future wellbeing.
I was very comfortable with the decision I made
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Cllr Ryan said she felt "privileged" to have been made aware of the critical gene mutation, and to have the ability to do something about it thanks to modern medicine.
"I feel deeply lucky to have these tools available to me,” she said.
"I was very comfortable with the decision I made," she added.
"But it is also brave to go with the screening option which is available. It is a very good screening programme at Cork University Hospital (CUH)."
"In a way I find it brave just to go that route. The anxiety for me was too much so what is important when it comes to these things is arming women to make those choices."
Family
Special tumour suppressor proteins are produced by genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2. If the cells mutate for some reason, they cannot function properly and result in a greatly increased risk of tumour or cancer development for the patient involved.
Seven of ten people screened within Cllr Ryan’s family tested positive for the rare gene mutation.
One of her grandmothers died in her late 30s, having been diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 30.
Cllr Ryan said the implications of the precautionary surgery option are clearly quite significant.
"Obviously, that increases the timeline for a lot of things that women my age would have such as family planning, going onto hormone therapy and you go immediately into menopause in the aftermath,” she said.
The councillor said recovery from her surgery at CUH was made all the difficult as it coincided with the launch of the nation’s second Level 5 Covid-19 lockdown.
"Only a couple of days (after surgery) the new lockdown measures were put in place,” she said.
"I couldn't visit anyone — I couldn't see my parents. I couldn't see my family or my partner.
"But the care I got in CUH was absolutely amazing. It was not just care but consideration."
Cllr Ryan said it was vital that such screening programmes receive all the resources they require – and that women availing of them are properly supported.
