During Breast Cancer Awareness month, Ella Hines tells Closer how she has found new hope for her future thanks to a groundbreaking trial…
Sitting in the hospital room, Ella Hines was just 22 when she was given the devastating news that there was a 99 per cent chance of her getting breast cancer – and that she should have a double mastectomy to try to prevent it.
Then tragically, before having the life-changing operation – which had been postponed due to the Covid pandemic – Ella found out that she did have breast cancer and that the mastectomy would have to be fast-tracked.
But instead of breaking down at the bombshell news, Ella vowed to do whatever it took to give her the best chance of survival. Ella, now 24, tells Closer, “It was a life-changing decision. But if it was what I needed to do, then I was going to do it. I was too young, with a whole exciting life ahead of me – if it meant choosing between my breasts or a death sentence, then it was no a brainer.”
Cancer wasn’t a new thing for Ella. She first battled it when she was nine months old. Ella says, “My parents noticed that I wasn’t eating or drinking and I was crying all the time. They took me to the doctors and I was diagnosed with adrenal cortical cancer. I had a tumour the size of a tennis ball on my left adrenal gland.”
GENETIC DEFECT
Doctors operated to remove the tumour and Ella was left with a scar across her stomach.
She was monitored regularly but led a normal childhood and at 16 she was discharged. In the years that passed, Ella got an admin job and dreamed of starting a family.
But three years ago a family member was diagnosed with a tumour on their adrenal gland and a genetic defect was found. Ella says, “A link was drawn to my tumour and a blood test showed that our gene defect was the same.”
Doctors said it was a medical mystery and Ella’s and hers weren’t linked in any way, but it turned out that they both had the same thing – Li-Fraumeni Syndrome (LFS), a genetic condition that gives women a 90 per cent chance and men a 70 per cent chance of developing cancer in their lifetimes.
Ella says, “After my diagnosis, when I was 22, I did a lot of research and joined support groups. I discovered that I was at a high chance of getting multiple different cancers – lots of people in the support groups were dying in their 30s. I didn’t want that to be me.”
It was a month after her diagnosis that Ella first met with a genetic counsellor, who advised a preventative mastectomy and also a hysterectomy after having children. “It was terrifying to know that there was no cure for LFS, but good to know there were some things I could do to reduce my chance
