She takes an allergy test and discovers a deadly genetic mutation

His appointment at the hospital turned the rest of his life upside down. In England, a woman named Nova Cobban decided after a few years to undergo medical tests to understand why she had so many digestion problems. Blame it on a food allergy, she said to herself logically. It was not so: the doctor, not finding any allergenic element, decided to make him take a DNA test to find out where his pain could come from. And the result was appalling.

The test in question revealed that Nova Cobban actually suffered from a cancer-causing gene from her father. The 43-year-old psychologist, mother of two, recounted the process: “It was simple. I sent in a mouth swab and three months later, in July 2021, the results came in. When I opened the app, I discovered that the cancer section had a warning. I was confronted with the following line: a carcinogenic mutation known as BRCA2 has been detected”.

Nova Cobban has an 87% chance of developing breast cancer

In other words: Nova Cobban is at risk of breast, ovarian or pancreatic cancer. “It was hard to take. I knew the story of Angelina Jolie, but I did not immediately equate this discovery with having to undergo preventive surgery like her. At first I felt undisturbed, not anxious,” she continued to tell. But quickly, a terrible memory comes back to him. “I knew that my father’s mother had died quite young and I vaguely knew that she had had breast cancer”. Terrible.

Nova was referred to the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, where a mammography consultant told her her risk of breast cancer was up to 87% higher than the rest of the population, while her chances of developing ovarian cancer were 43% higher. From now on, this English mother goes on dates to try to discover the best solution to avoid this…