North women to trial cancer drug
Feb 28 2008 by Audrey Barton, The Journal
'It's reassuring to think there might be a safety net for me in the future'
AMANDA Monaghan lost her mother to cancer just months after she was diagnosed with breast cancer herself.
The mother of two carries a fault in the BRCA2 gene and could benefit from the ground-breaking research in the future.
The 36-year-old was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2005 at the age of 33. The full-time mother from Brookfield, West Allotment, North Tyneside, was being treated with surgery and radiotherapy as she nursed her mum, whose condition was terminal. Her mother, Sheila Fraser, was first diagnosed with breast cancer aged 32. About 11 years later, she developed cancer in the other breast. Sadly she lost her life to womb cancer in 2005, aged 55, 11 months after her daughter was diagnosed. Amanda, who is married to Paul Monaghan, a landscape contractor, and has two children Joseph, aged 12, and Morgan, aged six, was just one year older than her mother had been when she was told she had the same disease. She discovered a lump in her breast while applying moisturiser and told her mother, who persuaded her to see the GP.
“Despite the fact that she was coping with cancer herself, my mum was a great comfort to me,” said Amanda. “She kept reminding me that she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer at around the same age as me but had gone on to see her grandchildren being born.”
After her own treatment, Amanda talked to her breast care nurse at North Tyneside General Hospital about her family history of cancer and was referred to the Institute of Human Genetics at the Centre for Life in Newcastle. She had genetic testing and was diagnosed with a fault in the BRCA2 gene in November 2007. Amanda feels that the new PARP inhibitor BRCA trial is important for women like her who have an inherited risk of cancer.
“When my mum was very ill with cancer, there was nothing more the doctors could offer her. This trial means that there could be an option in the future for women like me and my mum.
“It’s reassuring to think that there might be a ‘safety net’ for me in the future if I need further treatment.
“It is fantastic they might be able to use it as a preventative measure.”
Amanda is a committed supporter of Cancer Research UK, which is funding the new trial. She has taken part in the charity’s Race for Life over the last two years and intends to join the 5k women only event at Newcastle Exhibition Park and Town Moor on Sunday, July 13.
