Talk To The Headscarf: A memoir

Laugh in the face of sickness, because there are no rules that state you have to lose the battle. Guess what You might just win.

Imagine you're thirty-two, married with two little children, and you find out you're carrying a deadly cancer gene. That was me in 2005, when I when I discovered the BRAC1 gene, which meant I had an 85% chance of developing breast cancer and a 50% chance of developing ovarian cancer. I had two options - wait for the big bad cancer wolf or have radical preventative surgery. Over the following year, I had a double mastectomy and both ovaries removed, which reduced my cancer risk to 5%.

Despite this, cancer struck anyway. I've now battled and slayed cancer six times. TALK TO THE HEADSCARF is my story of how I lived, laughed and overcame some of the toughest times in my life. If you know someone affected by cancer, or if you are a fellow 'cancer club member', I know you are scared. I was too. But you are not alone. I am still here. I am living proof that, against the odds, life can and does carry on. The score so far is - Cancer O: Emma 6. And if my cancer returns, I will keep on crusading.