‘Not being there for my son is a problem’

After getting her test results and the bad news, Amber Burrough didn’t tell anybody for a while.

“I was diagnosed with the BRCA2 gene mutation, with an 87 percent chance that I would have an aggressive form of breast cancer. So I made the pre-emptive choice to have a double mastectomy.

“I fought against it at first, and my oncologist kept asking me why. I told her I didn’t want the scars, the ridiculous scars. One day she said to me, ‘You’re worried about your son having a mom with scars, but you’re not worried about your son with no mom being scarred?’ From that point on it was just, ‘Let’s do this,’ and I’ve kept going.

“The possibility of not being there for my son is a problem. At the end of the day, I want to embarrass him by dancing badly at his wedding.”

— Amber Burrough