COLUMN: Emily Ranoble - ‘Yes, I’m scared - but also lucky’

She is due to have radical surgery to stop her developing the disease and is writing a blog each week in the Reporter Series...

So today is the day – after two years of preparation I am going for my double mastectomy.

In fact, by the time many of you read this it will all be over, and that is a strangely comforting thought.

It sort of puts it into perspective. Yes, it is a big day, but it is just one day and, no matter how scary it is, it will soon be over and I can get on with the business of recovering.

Right now I am more worried about the surgery itself than I have been, probably because there isn’t really anything else left to think about at this stage.

On the other hand I won’t know much about it, I shall be fast asleep and my surgeons will be doing all the hard work, so in reality what I fear most is that moment when I wake up.

I am sure that once I come round properly I will be flooded with relief. I am not naive enough to think that it will all be plain sailing, I know that the recovery will be rough at times, but I imagine this whole process has been a bit like climbing a mountain, where the six hours of surgery represents the peak.

It has been a long, arduous climb and even though I’ve now reached the top, the journey down the mountain will present challenges of its own.

I have never lost sight of why I am doing this.

So today, when I find myself scared or anxious, I am just going to hold on to that and remember how lucky I am to have been given this chance.