We're sisters Emma and Joanne. Joanne and I first found out about breast cancer when our auntie passed away from the disease. We were youngsters at the time.

Our mother and aunt were then invited to St Mary's Hospital for drug trials with tamoxifen, a hormone therapy that can reduce your risk of breast cancer. It was then that we also learnt our grandmother had passed away from breast cancer in her early 40s.

When my sister Joanne was in her early 40s, she found a lump and was sadly diagnosed with breast cancer too. After this news, we understood that that it could be genetic.

After getting tests, we found out that myself, Joanne, our mum and cousin all carried the BRCA2 gene. We all had a 50/50 chance of getting breast cancer and maybe passing this on to future generations.

Unfortunately, before we could go for elective surgery, myself, our mum and cousin were then all diagnosed with breast cancer. I was 41 years old, my cousin was 43 and mum was 67 at the time of our diagnoses. We all went on to have full mastectomies.

Just over 2 years later, Joanne also went on to be diagnosed with lymphoma. She’s been recovering from the trauma and stress of this too.

Knowing what we know now, Joanne and I wanted to give back with wear it pink

We wanted to help families like ours and help raise funds for ground-breaking research. So, our wear it pink charity night was born!

We decided to organise a small party at Joanne's house. We asked people for donations and played games like guess the number of sweets in the jar. We also organised a raffle and asked local businesses to donate prizes. We raised £600 and were so pleased!

Since then we have gone on to raise over £20,000 for Breast Cancer Care and we feel privileged to help such a fantastic charity. We need to make people aware of Breast Cancer Now and what they do to help people with a breast cancer diagnosis. We’re truly proud to be part of wear it pink and what it stands for.