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Mother's death from breast cancer led Bristol woman to choose double mastectomy

Emily Hardaker, 34, from Bristol, chose a preventative double mastectomy after testing positive for a BRCA2 gene mutation, driven by her mother's death from breast cancer and her sister's diagnosis. Her cancer risk has since dropped from 80-90% to 8%, and she now supports other women through the Women's Empowerment Movement.

By Tertius News AI Desk 2 outlets · 2 articles Version 1 Coverage Aug 29, 2026 Published 7h ago

A Decision Rooted in Family History

For Emily Hardaker, breast cancer has been a constant presence since she was 14, when the disease took her mother's life. That early loss shaped her approach to her own health, leading her to choose a preventative double mastectomy two years ago.

In 2017, at age 25, Hardaker tested positive for a BRCA2 gene mutation, which significantly increased her risk of developing breast cancer. The 34-year-old from Brislington, Bristol, said the decision to undergo surgery was straightforward given her family history.

"Seeing as that my mum had passed away, and my family were, I use the term 'riddled with it', which I know is not funny, it was a no-brainer for me," she said.

Hardaker's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer at 40 and died eight years later. Reflecting on her childhood, Hardaker described watching her mother struggle with illness.

"Most of my childhood, I saw my mother quite unwell, quite frail, which definitely feeds into why I've taken the course of action that I have," she said. "She was always ill during childhood, and wasn't the kind of woman who would play or do anything active. I do have happy memories of her, but we would often have to help with things like shopping, for example."

The Genetic Factor

According to Cancer Research, researchers think around seven in every 10 women with a change in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene will develop breast cancer by the age of 80. These genes act as tumour suppressors by fixing broken DNA; when they carry harmful changes or mutations, the risk for breast, ovarian, and other cancers increases.

Hardaker's decision to get tested was spurred by her sister, who was diagnosed with a faulty BRCA2 gene in 2016. The news took time to process.

"You think you're going to be ready for something like that, but actually, I don't think I really processed it for a good several years," she said. "It is a hard thing to carry. It's heavy, and then it is also long, so it's not something you can do about it immediately."

A Seven-Year Wait and the Surgery

After deciding she wanted the surgery, Hardaker faced a seven-year wait, partly due to the time taken to process the decision and delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. When the operation finally took place two years ago, she had a preventative double mastectomy along with breast reconstruction surgery at the same time.

The surgery dramatically reduced her cancer risk—from 80-90% to 8%. The recovery was challenging; as she described it, the process was "really hard," and she couldn't sleep flat for a month.

Hardaker has spoken about the emotional weight of the procedure, using terms like "amputation" and "losing my womanhood" to convey the difficulty, while also describing the surgery as a "positive" step and a source of "hope for the future."

Returning to Work and Supporting Others

Three weeks after the mastectomy, Hardaker returned to work as a personal trainer at Sweatbox gym in Bedminster. She now supports other women through a network called the Women's Empowerment Movement, helping those facing similar decisions or experiences.

How each outlet told it

A framing line is our reading of that outlet's own text — an interpretation, not a quotation and not a fact we assert. Check it against what the outlet published.

BBC — World — Personal motivation: a woman's choice for a double mastectomy driven by her mother's death from breast cancer.
Yahoo News New Zealand — Highlights the personal motivation behind the medical decision

BBC — World as of Aug 29, 2026, 8:01 AM UTC

Framing: Our reading Personal motivation: a woman's choice for a double mastectomy driven by her mother's death from breast cancer. — personal and sympathetic, centering Hardaker's lived experience.

Facts Included:

Emily Hardaker was 14 when her mother died of breast cancer.
In 2017, at age 25, Hardaker tested positive for a BRCA2 gene mutation.
Hardaker is 34 years old and from Brislington, Bristol.
She had a preventative double mastectomy two years ago.
Hardaker's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer at 40 and died eight years later.
Her sister was diagnosed with a faulty BRCA2 gene in 2016.
The wait for surgery was seven years, partly due to Covid-19 pandemic delays.
After surgery, Hardaker's cancer risk dropped from 80-90% to 8%.
She had breast reconstruction surgery at the same time.
Three weeks after mastectomy, she returned to work as a personal trainer at Sweatbox gym in Bedminster.
She supports a network called the Women's Empowerment Movement.
Cancer Research states around 7 in 10 women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 changes will develop breast cancer by age 80.

Read the source article →

Yahoo News New Zealand as of Aug 29, 2026, 8:01 AM UTC

Framing: Our reading Highlights the personal motivation behind the medical decision

Facts Included:

Emily Hardaker's mother died of breast cancer when Hardaker was 14
In 2017, Hardaker tested positive for a BRCA2 gene mutation at age 25
Hardaker is 34 years old and from Brislington, Bristol
She had a preventative double mastectomy two years ago
She had breast reconstruction surgery at the same time
Her risk of cancer is now 8%, whereas it was 80-90% before
She returned to work as a personal trainer at Sweatbox gym in Bedminster three weeks after mastectomy
She helps other women through a support network called the Women's Empowerment Movement
Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer at 40 and died eight years later
Her sister was diagnosed with a faulty BRCA2 gene in 2016
The wait for surgery was seven years due to processing time and Covid-19 delays
Recovery process was 'really hard' and she couldn't sleep flat for a month

Read the source article →

What was claimed, and who backed it

AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.

Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status is Contested when two claims on this page negate each other; otherwise it counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.

Claim	Confidence	Status
ClaimCancer Research UK states around 7 in 10 women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations will develop breast cancer by age 80.	ConfidenceMedium	StatusSingle-source via BBC — World as of Aug 29, 2026, 8:01 AM UTC

Transparency & Audit Trail

2 outlets · 2 articles consulted: BBC — World, Yahoo News New Zealand 1 claim extracted Version 1 Written 2026-08-29