I'm a mother of three. When I was thirteen, I lost my own mother to breast cancer, and from that moment on I was determined to do everything I could to be around for my own kids for as long as possible. It's as simple as that. This blog has been my way of doing the due diligence on what once felt like an impossible mission.
I tested positive for the BRCA1 gene in 2005, a few months after my grandmother, a breast cancer survivor, tested positive herself. Huntsman Cancer Institute gave us the best genetic counseling we could have asked for. Over the next decade, while we were living in Singapore, every doctor I met eventually asked, "Heather, when are you going to be ready for surgery?", including my doctor there at the time, Dr. Steven Tucker.
It took me ten years to find the right answers and lay out my path toward taking the fear out of my life. I was fortunate to find the perfect surgeon for me, Dr. Chrysopoulo of PRMA in San Antonio, who performed a bilateral prophylactic mastectomy in 2015, with one-step reconstruction using Alloderm. In plain terms: I was never diagnosed with cancer, but I still chose to have a mastectomy to remove my breast tissue. I flew from Singapore to Texas for that surgery, that's how much confidence I had in Dr. C and the PRMA team. In December 2015, back home in Singapore, I followed it with an oophorectomy, closing the door on BRCA1 as completely as I could.
Now, a decade on, I'm back in it. I'm navigating a new surgery decision in real time as of 2026, weighing an implant exchange against other options like DIEP flap or fat transfer without flap, and starting the surgeon conversations all over again. I'm still working out the logistics too: whether that means traveling from Spain back to San Antonio, or finding the right team closer to home in Valencia, where I live now. I'll be documenting this next chapter here as it unfolds.
I still advocate for BRCA awareness, genetic testing, and breast reconstruction through this blog and on Instagram @my_brca_story. In the meantime, I'm a teacher, a baker, a travel writer, and a dreamer.
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