A woman who underwent an elective double mastectomy because she carried a deadly cancer gene that killed her mother and sister has ditched her media career to travel the world.
Former BBC presenter, Claira Hermet, 28, from north London, embarked on her globe-trotting adventure after having her breasts removed and then reconstruction surgery in January 2015.
Consumed by wanderlust she sold most of her belongings on eBay, packed a rucksack and invited blog readers to decide which countries and cities to visit on her travels.
Claira who used to be a presenter for BBC Radio 1Xtra and BT Sport from Kensal Green in London, had the surgery when tests revealed she carried the faulty BRCA1 gene which claimed the lives of her mother Jane and elder sister Emily, when they were 42 and 31 respectively.
She said: 'When my sister died I made a pact with myself to find a way to be happy'.
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New life: Former BBC presenter, Claira Hermet, 28, from London, pictured in Prainha Brazil after her breasts were removed, embarked on a globe-trotting adventure after undergoing a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery in January 2015
Surgery: The former presenter had an elective double mastectomy (pictured after reconstruction surgery left) to avoid the same fate as her mother and sister and used a plaster cast (right) taken before the breasts were removed to help surgeons reconstruct them
Decison: Claira carried the faulty BRCA1 gene which claimed the lives of her mother Jane and elder sister Emily, pictured together, when they were 42 and 31 respectively
'They may not have their lives, but I have mine and I want to make it count for them and for myself,' she said.
Career: Claira worked for BBC 1Xtra (pictured) and BT Sport but has now left the country
'After the operation I started to be filled with an urge to travel so I decided to go ahead with it – I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.'
On New Year's Eve 2015 she waved goodbye to her family and friends and jetted to Barbados, regularly updating blog My Life Your Hands to document her journey.
Although she had decided the continents and some of the countries before jetting off, everything else is in the hands of complete strangers.
She asks followers on her blog and Twitter to vote on where she should go next, how she should get there and what she should do when she arrives.
Claira spent her first month on the sun-drenched islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The Caribbean islands hold a special place in her heart as she credits it for helping her overcome bulimia when she visited eight years ago.
She said: 'There's something magical about the place. I tried everything to get it under control and when I went there it never bothered me again. I don't know what happened.
'There's an energy about it. I haven't been there for years but as soon as I got off the place it felt like home.'
From there she jetted to Trinidad, Panama and then on to carnival capital of the world Rio where she spent Valentine's Day watching a samba parade with friends.
Claira said: 'I just couldn't believe it I was there – it was almost magical – I was there with complete strangers who are now friends for life.
'It's been so cathartic talking about things with people who each have a different outlook on it – it's been quite emotional.'
Claira said that her journey is one to find the thing missing from her life – peace.
She said: 'I don't necessarily think I've found it yet.
'When you're back home and get emotional you have lots of stuff to distract you, but when you're travelling on your own you don't have that – you have to confront it. It's quite an intense experience.'
Double tragedy: Claira, pictured left in Boipeba, Brazil wanted to make the most of her life after both her mother and older sister Emily, right, died from breast cancer
Bereft: 18-month-old Claira pictured on her mother Jane's lap. She later lost her mother to cancer, which consumed her with grief
The adventurer, pictured as she prepared to set off on her travels, she sold most of her belongings on eBay, packed a rucksack and invited blog readers to decide which countries and cities to visit on her travels
She jetted to the carnival capital of the world Rio, left and right, where she spent Valentine's Day watching a samba parade with friends
Claira pictured making friends at Tobago Cays. On her travels she's met total strangers who have become friends for life
Idyll: Claira poses in front of a waterfall at Chapada Diamantina, Brazil, as she promised to make herself happy after the deaths in her family
The blog hasn't only helped her document this new chapter in her life, but it's also helped deepen her relationship with her dad.
She said: 'My dad and I are very close but we don't necessarily communicate that.
'By reading my blog I think it's made him realise what the process has been for me. He now understands how important this trip is to me.'
Claira plans to pen a self-help and spiritual guide aimed at young people called Things I Wish My Mum Had Told Me.
Before her mastectomy she also held a Goodbye Boobs party to say goodbye to her breasts six days before the operation.
Adventures: Claira is using her blog to decide what will happen on her wold trip, which included handgliding in Brazil
She has also tried snorkelling in Brasil and has financed the trip by selling off most of her belongings in the UK on eBayy
Life choice: Claira said as soon as she heard that she had the gene it was clear to that she would always elect to have her breasts removed
She, like her sister, carried the faulty BRCA1 gene that predisposed her to breast cancer. And she had an 85 per cent chance of contracting the disease that had killed the two women she loved most in the world.
The mastectomy would reduce this risk dramatically to less than that of the average woman.
As soon as she knew this there was no doubt in her mind that she would, one day, undergo the radical surgery. 'When they told me I had the gene it was as if someone had punched me in the stomach. I walked from the hospital to the Tube holding back tears,' she said.
'I knew at that moment that I'd have the operation — they said they would sort it out for me as soon as I was ready — but I was young; only 19. I was worried. I thought I'd wait until I was in a stable relationship with a man who loved me for myself, so I wouldn't have to fear he'd leave me when he saw me after the operation. It all seemed a long way off.'
However, when her sister Emily died on January 10, 2012 — after fighting the disease for six-and-half agonising years — it marked a turning point.
'I think I went a little bit insane with grief,' Claira said at the time. 'I remember texting her after she died. I wrote, 'Help!' I did it a few times. I just wanted her back so much I was actually prepared to believe she hadn't really gone, that there was a way to speak to her again.
'For years I'd been grieving for my mum. I missed her so much. I'd close the door and bawl my eyes out, and every time it was as if her death had only just happened; right then and there. That was how raw and intense the emotion was.
'And I had this feeling of absolute helplessness because I couldn't get her back. Then I lost Emily, too, and I was bawling for both of them, literally crying out: 'I miss my mum and sister so much.'
'Then, gradually, a change came about. I started to think: 'I don't want to spend my life being miserable because that's not what my mum and sister would want and it's horrible.' I realised I was dragging the burden of my loss around with me, and that I owed it to them to be happy.
'That feeling seemed to tie up with my decision to have the mastectomy. 'I began to realise how small my concerns were. Each day I became more and more grateful just for being alive.
'The decision didn't happen overnight. It was a long slog and I had to change myself first, to recognise that my breasts didn't define me and if a man was going to leave me it wouldn't be because I'd lost them.
'Of course, there have been times when I've got out of the shower, sat in front of the mirror and said: 'Ah . . . I'm going to miss you two.' But that's not constructive and I don't dwell on it.
'And when, a few months back, I set the date for my mastectomy it was empowering. It made me feel I was in control; that a weight had been lifted. It's allowed me to talk about Mum too, and helped me say goodbye to her, just as I'm saying goodbye to cancer.
'My mum and sister weren't in control. But I am; I'm well. And I'm choosing to do this because I don't want to get cancer and die.
People say it's brave, but it isn't though, is it? It's nothing compared with what Mum and Emily went through. This is a walk in the park. It's easy. I don't have to have chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
'So I don't feel scared or negative. Actually I'm looking forward to it. And if I can help other women who are worried or shying away from it, that will turn a negative into something brilliant.'
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