Wednesday, November 08, 2006
My Family.
Ok, maybe this post goes a little deep - but I'm looking for ideas. My Dad has herediatory form of bowel cancer which can be found in a mutation of the MYH gene. The only way you can suffer from this is if you have the two recessive mutant genes (One from your mother and one from your father) - Around 1 in 200 people are carriers of the gene, meaning that the sufferer is 1 in 40000.
As my dad is a sufferer it means that potentially my sister and I are sufferers and definately carriers - so it's down to my mum. My mum is definately not a sufferer. She has had no tests, but I can say this conclusively as I have had the test giving me the all clear meaning I inherited a clean gene from my mother, but she may be a carrier, meaning that my sister still could be a sufferer as she has not been tested.
So, what can I tell from this about my family?
Sadly, my grandad died from the same problem, and tests have proven he was a sufferer. So that means my nan is a carrier as my uncle is safe (my dad's brother), but it does mean that my grandad's brothers and sisters could have also been sufferers as we know my grandad inherited the two mutant genes from his mother and father.
My grandad was of a large family, 16 brothers and 2 sisters. Leaving to chance and not knowing enough about my great grandparents that at best there were less than 9 sufferers of the herediatory cancer in my grandads brothers and sisters and most would be carriers.
The majority of my grandads siblings are men, carrying the name Francis. We are a distant family, being so large, and I feel I know something which could affect my great uncles and aunts and their children which they should know. Please reply to this post if you are part of the large Birmingham UK Francis family (I think we hail from Solihull / Marston Green area).
What I really want to do is create awareness and help research into this, so any ideas for raising money and creating awareness are much appreciated. My dad is part of some research at Cardiff University at the moment - so some monetary help for this could be a start.
Ok, maybe this post goes a little deep - but I'm looking for ideas. My Dad has herediatory form of bowel cancer which can be found in a mutation of the MYH gene. The only way you can suffer from this is if you have the two recessive mutant genes (One from your mother and one from your father) - Around 1 in 200 people are carriers of the gene, meaning that the sufferer is 1 in 40000.
As my dad is a sufferer it means that potentially my sister and I are sufferers and definately carriers - so it's down to my mum. My mum is definately not a sufferer. She has had no tests, but I can say this conclusively as I have had the test giving me the all clear meaning I inherited a clean gene from my mother, but she may be a carrier, meaning that my sister still could be a sufferer as she has not been tested.
So, what can I tell from this about my family?
Sadly, my grandad died from the same problem, and tests have proven he was a sufferer. So that means my nan is a carrier as my uncle is safe (my dad's brother), but it does mean that my grandad's brothers and sisters could have also been sufferers as we know my grandad inherited the two mutant genes from his mother and father.
My grandad was of a large family, 16 brothers and 2 sisters. Leaving to chance and not knowing enough about my great grandparents that at best there were less than 9 sufferers of the herediatory cancer in my grandads brothers and sisters and most would be carriers.
The majority of my grandads siblings are men, carrying the name Francis. We are a distant family, being so large, and I feel I know something which could affect my great uncles and aunts and their children which they should know. Please reply to this post if you are part of the large Birmingham UK Francis family (I think we hail from Solihull / Marston Green area).
What I really want to do is create awareness and help research into this, so any ideas for raising money and creating awareness are much appreciated. My dad is part of some research at Cardiff University at the moment - so some monetary help for this could be a start.
// posted by Richard Francis @ 9:59 AM 
