Accepting with Grace

Mastectomy & Reconstruction – My Choice Before Breast Cancer

How one woman broke the curse of cancer.

What would you do if doctors discovered you had a potential 80% chance of developing cancer? Sharon Tregoning decided to do something. She’d already lost her sister Bess to breast cancer, had developed three benign breast lumps herself, and was undergoing the nerve-wracking routine of annual mammograms and ultrasounds.

The catalyst for action arose with the starting revelation about her family’s genetic history – five women in the last four generations of her family had succumbed to breast cancer, and three before the age of 45.

With full knowledge of her predisposition, Sharon decided to take control of her destiny. She committed to a radical fight-back plan – a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction using her own tummy tissue. Her husband Reid described the move as a “pre-emptive strike”.

This is her very candid story – complete with graphic photographs – of that agonising decision, and her year-long road to recovery, in rebuilding her body, and reclaiming hope for a cancer-free future.