'My family won't be beaten by breast cancer' says singer-songwriter Beverley Craven
BEVERLEY CRAVEN has had more than her share of heartbreak.
The singer-songwriter who battled breast cancer in 2005 has since seen Kathy, her 43-year-old sister and a mother- of-four, become terminally ill from the disease.
Beverley, best known for the 1991 international hit Promise Me and her eponymous million-selling debut album, has been told by her genetic counsellor that her daughters Mollie, 21, Brenna, 18, and Connie, 16, stand a 50 per cent chance of getting the disease.
When she broke the news to her daughters their response amazed her in more ways than one.
“They said to me that once they’ve had babies and breast fed them they will undergo double mastectomies,” she reveals. “I think it’s really sad that until a cure is found for breast cancer, women at high risk have little choice but to mutilate themselves.
“My girls are very brave and sensible. It will be their choice and I won’t try to influence them but they have been inspired by Angelina Jolie’s decision to have a preventive double mastectomy.
“My sister, who was diagnosed in 2008, was given the all clear when she had her double mastectomy because as far as the doctors were concerned you remove the breast, you remove the problem. Actually the cancer had already got into her blood and gone to her liver which is why she is now terminally ill.”
Kathy’s identical twin Clare doesn’t have the disease.
“Some people have heart disease in their family, others have dementia or multiple sclerosis. Very few people get a free ride. At least we know what our ‘thing’ is so we can keep an eye on it which makes things slightly better I suppose,” says Beverley.
H ER COUSIN Sara was diagnosed with breast cancer at 36 and died from it 10 years later, and her aunt Anna went through it a decade ago in her early 60s.
“If Sara hadn’t flagged it up for the rest of us I might be in an entirely different position now,” Beverley, 50, explains. “Learning of her experience prompted me to have a mammogram at 41. That came back clear but a few months later I found a lump myself.
“When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2005 it was unbelievably shocking and my immediate thought was ‘I’m going to die’ because Sara was on that trajectory and I assumed that’s what would happen to me.
“Twice I got on the phone to my surgeon and begged him to remove my breasts because I viewed them as a liability but he insisted it wasn’t necessary. I just had one tumour which was removed with a lumpectomy and fortunately my cancer had not spread. “I had radiotherapy every day for a month. It was two years before I felt strong again and it’s not until you get to the five-year milestone that you can absolutely say you’ve beaten it.”
Beverley has not had to take any medication since a nine-month stint on tamoxifen caused her to have a uterine polyp which had to be removed. Her three-monthly check-ups with breast surgeon Giles Cunnick and oncologist Alan Makepeace at The Chiltern Hospital have now become annual.
Beverley believes she helped herself by following The Breast Cancer Prevention And Recovery Diet by nutritionist and breast cancer survivor Suzannah Olivier.
Suzannah advocates cutting back on sugar, avoiding refined foods, taking regular exercise, eating oily fish and drinking one unit of alcohol a day at most. She recommends getting back to basics, eating foods that are recognisable and “if you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it”.
E ight years on Beverley still eats healthily and runs or power walks every day and encourages her girls to do the same.
“I used to check my breasts every day too but now I only do that a few times a month,” she says. “I don’t know how often my girls check themselves but they know they need to be extra vigilant and they have asked me when they will be required to have mammograms.
“I told them mammograms are usually only offered to women who are perimenopausal or post-menopausal but younger women can have MRI scans if necessary. Mollie, Brenna and Connie should have many years before it becomes an issue for them and hopefully by then a cure will have been found.”
Beverley, whose decision to go public about her breast cancer was inspired by Kylie Minogue doing the same, also decided to make changes in her life. She divorced lyricist Colin Campsie in 2011 and their daughters live with him in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, close to where she lives alone.
“The period in my life in which I had breast cancer was very unhappy for me,” she says. “It’s often said that cancer is linked to resentment and I do believe there’s a link between your health and your level of contentment.
“So I want my girls to enjoy life to the full and I’m pleased to say they seem genuinely happy at the moment. Mollie (who was a successful contestant on ITV’s Take Me Out, hosted by Paddy McGuinness) wants to get married and have babies.
“Brenna is going to study events management at Bournemouth, although I think she should be a make-up artist, and Connie is planning to follow in my footsteps as a singer-songwriter and hopefully fulfil her dream to be as big as Ed Sheeran.
“Thankfully I don’t think the prospect of breast cancer preoccupies them. After all any of us could get knocked down by a bus tomorrow.”
Beverley Craven will be guest of honour at a star-studded Breast Cancer Care charity event at Champneys Tring in Hertfordshire on Tuesday, November 5
