WHEN a mother and daughter both opted for a double mastectomy, the same thought was racing through their minds: “I’d rather be alive with no breasts than in a coffin and keep them.”

Hazel Dyer and daughter Kelly have in common this rather steely and pragmatic approach to breast cancer which has helped both of them survive and indeed thrive, becoming two of the many faces of a charity campaign to raise £2.5 million for a new breast care unit.

Both are avid ambassadors for the Worcestershire Breast Unit Campaign, backed by your Worcester News, to create a dedicated one-stop-service for patients at 220 Newtown Road on the site of the Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester.

They appeared together in a fundraising calendar last October which features revealing photographs of patients who have battled the disease and others who helped them get through it.

About 500 people in Worcestershire are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, higher than the national average, and one in nine women and one in 1,000 men will develop breast cancer Hazel, aged 62, of Steynors Close, Droitwich, is shy of publicity but it was worth overcoming her inhibitions to get behind such a worthwhile cause.

Hazel did not initially tell anyone she had found a lump until she could be sure what it was. She saw no point in heaping unnecessary worry on her family, especially when she thought there was every chance it could be a harmless cyst.

She travelled alone to Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester for tests in the spring of 2006 which confirmed the lump was an aggressive grade three tumour.

Hazel was determined to remain positive throughout and carried on going to work as a support worker for Festival Housing.

She decided to have a double mastectomy and have some lymph nodes removed, knowing she was a carrier of the BRCA2 gene which increases the risk of developing both breast and ovarian cancer.

Her niece died aged 28 of breast cancer and both her sisters had breast cancer young, which shows the strong genetic predisposition to this type of cancer in some families.

Hazel said: “There was an 80 per cent chance of the cancer coming back in the other breast. I made the decision to get rid of both of them.

“It was hard because everybody has something about themselves they don’t like, but my breasts have been the one thing I wouldn’t have bothered to have altered. It was a practical decision to have them both removed. It would rather be alive with no breasts than in a coffin and keep them.”

Her breasts were reconstructed using muscle from her back in one breast and an implant in the other.

She said: “I’ve never thought the cancer will come back. I’m a positive person anyway. I didn’t drive everybody mad talking about it.”

One of her memories of her treatment, which involved both chemotherapy and radiotherapy, was removing her wig on a hot day while out shopping with her best friend. She said: “It was getting on my nerves. It was very warm and I just got brave and took it off. It was quite liberating.”

Her daughter Kelly, 31, of Little Hill Court, Droitwich, opted to have a double mastectomy after she attended a clinic at Birmingham Women’s Hospital in February 2008 which showed she too was a carrier of the BRCA2 gene.

She said: “I felt my breasts were a time bomb waiting to go off and I just wanted to get them off as quickly as possible.”

A routine mammogram at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester highlighted a cluster of cells which needed further investigation, although a biopsy proved inconclusive.

Regardless, she had a double mastectomy aged 29 and later tests showed her breasts contained cells which would have been likely to turn cancerous within five years.

Before the operation, Kelly had felt very positive but as she went into surgery, she broke down. She said: “I was just crying uncontrollably. It only hit me then that I was going to lose my breasts.”

But that tough decision spared her the discomfort of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Kelly said she was extremely pleased with the work of her consultant, Rachel Bright-Thomas who reconstructed her breasts using implants. Both are particularly complimentary about the care they received from the breast care nurses and the sensitive manner of consultant Steven Thrush.

She says the surgery is so good she feels more confident wearing a swimsuit than she did beforehand.

Kelly has also been fortunate to have support from her partner of 15 years, Stuart Whitteron, the father of her two children, Isabella, eight, and Noah, three. The experience has helped bring mother and daughter closer together.

Staff also put her in touch with patients who need to have a mastectomy so she can offer advice or answer any questions.

Both women are excited about the new breast care unit, particularly because the unit will be based under one roof and served by its own car parking spaces.

To support the campaign, visit everybodyknowssomebody.co.uk.