COLUMN: Emily Ranoble - ‘Yes, I’m scared - but also lucky’

Two generations of women on the maternal side of Birstall 26-year-old Emily Ranoble’s family have been affected by breast cancer.
Emily Ranoble.Emily Ranoble.
Emily Ranoble.

She is due to have radical surgery to stop her developing the disease and is writing a blog each week in the Reporter Series...

So today is the day – after two years of preparation I am going for my double mastectomy.

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In fact, by the time many of you read this it will all be over, and that is a strangely comforting thought.

It sort of puts it into perspective. Yes, it is a big day, but it is just one day and, no matter how scary it is, it will soon be over and I can get on with the business of recovering.

Right now I am more worried about the surgery itself than I have been, probably because there isn’t really anything else left to think about at this stage.

On the other hand I won’t know much about it, I shall be fast asleep and my surgeons will be doing all the hard work, so in reality what I fear most is that moment when I wake up.

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I am sure that once I come round properly I will be flooded with relief. I am not naive enough to think that it will all be plain sailing, I know that the recovery will be rough at times, but I imagine this whole process has been a bit like climbing a mountain, where the six hours of surgery represents the peak.

It has been a long, arduous climb and even though I’ve now reached the top, the journey down the mountain will present challenges of its own.

I have never lost sight of why I am doing this.

So today, when I find myself scared or anxious, I am just going to hold on to that and remember how lucky I am to have been given this chance.