Editor’s Note: The first email I opened this morning was from across the pond, written by a young woman who had just received news of her BRCA 2 positive status. Her words are so poignant, so valuable, that I wrote to her immediately and asked if I could share them as a Guest Post. With Natalie’s blessing, here they are:
by Natalie
I received the results of my test today – and I carry the BRCA2 gene. I guess I knew I did, although until this morning I still lived with that tension between being resigned to the fact that I probably did have the gene, and that secret, guilty hope that I might not. The probability having been 50/50, I always had that image of a coin flipping, or Schrodinger’s cat, and imagined myself getting either the good, or bad, news, and my two very different reactions.
I’m 29, my mother first got cancer when I was 11 (when she was 39), so the time for me to start the process of preventative treatment is now. I’m British and I live and work in Spain, and the one thing that shocks me, culturally, reading the posts on this blog, is the additional stress that these women have to go through regarding what the insurance will or will not pay for. Obviously health care is free in the UK and Spain and my mother, having had three separate cancers, is still alive, happy and strong and has never had to pay a single penny.
I also just happen to work as a researcher in a medical anthropology department and plan on writing a paper on the differences that my sister and I have encountered in the Spanish and British genetic testing services (genetic counselling is obligatory in the UK, whereas it is not offered here in Spain).
I plan to make further posts in the future and I’d be interested to hear about other peoples experiences of genetic testing etc.
Like my doctor said today, this is not a life sentence. There are actions we can take, and it is not the end of the world.
After writing this post, I’m starting to feel better already.
It's in the Genes 
Oh, to not have to worry about the costs! My Mom has had cancer 3 times — and many, many times wondered it was worth it to pour family finacial resources into an old and cancer-riddled body. We all assured her that she was most certainly worth, but the fact that she even had to worry about such a thing is sad.