Sarah Burnett was 43 when breast cancer was diagnosed in November 2005. Despite having had the all-clear after a mammogram a year earlier, she had developed 11 tumours and had to have a mastectomy and chemotherapy.

Because of a family history of breast cancer – her mother had the diagnosis at 51 – she had insisted on annual mammograms from the age of 38. They probably saved her life.

Her mother had been perimenopausal when her diagnosis was made, Dr Burnett, a radiologist, said, so she would not have been screened by the NHS until she was 46.

“It was only because of my work as a radiologist that I was able to get screening before this age,” she said.

“This meant that I caught the cancer early, before it had a chance to spread to my lymph nodes.”

A colleague at the private Princess Grace Hospital in Central London did the mammogram and showed Dr Burnett the results.

“I only saw the largest tumour. It was only when I went for ultrasound that I found out I had 11 tumours,” she said. “Thankfully, they were all very small.”

Dr Burnett, of Battersea, had a mastectomy, reconstructive surgery and chemotherapy.

A year later her aunt, 70, was told that cancer was present in both breasts, indicating an even stronger genetic link.

Dr Burnett’s daughter, Xanthe, 9, is now worried that she will develop the disease and wants to have genetic testing. “Xanthe is concerned, but we are glad at this breakthrough in research,” Dr Burnett said.

“We hope it will help her decide when to start screening. If she has the gene, I think she should start being screened at the age of 25.

“I would hate her to go through what I went through. It’s been a very tough time.”

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