interview
Undergoing a double mastectomy was an easy decision for 28-year-old Emily Vagulans, whose family had been cursed with cancer for generations. Now in recovery, Emily’s battle with breast cancer is over before it even really began. All that’s left are her battle scars, which if you ask Emily’s two-year-old son are from wrestling a dinosaur. INTERVIEW RACHEL LICCIARDELLO PHOTOGRAPHY ANDREW RANKIN
“Mummy wrestled a dinosaur.” At just 28 years old, Emily Vagulans has spent one-quarter that caused a lot of anxiety.” of her life wrestling with cancer. The insidious disease has In 2003 Emily’s mum, Geneine, was diagnosed with breast claimed the lives of both her parents, threatened two aunties cancer. “Mum had a mammogram and all seemed fine, but she and her grandmother, taunted her eldest sister and, this year, found a lump soon after and it took her six months before she got it checked by the doctor. Sure enough, it was a very aggrescame knocking for Emily. As a nurse, Emily is well aware of just how cruel cancer can be. sive form of cancer that had already spread to her lymph nodes. But it is her experiences nursing each of her parents through So, she had a partial mastectomy, removing the lymph nodes the disease that has left this young woman – wife to Aymon as well, followed by chemotherapy and radiation treatment.” and mother to little Lachlan (who will turn three on New Emily was 21, had just finished her nursing degree and reloYear’s Eve) – adamant she will not fall victim to breast cancer. cated to Townsville, only to return to the Riverina area in After finding a lump in her breast in May and undergoing New South Wales to nurse Geneine. “For a while everything a double mastectomy in October, Emily’s chance of getting seemed to be going well, but after about a year mum started breast cancer has dropped from 60 per cent to less than 1 per feeling unwell,” remembers Emily. “She had a CT scan, and cent. “I feel as though I can breathe now,” tells Emily. “It her liver looked like a Christmas pudding, covered in little wasn’t a matter of if I would get breast cancer, but when, and tumours. The cancer had also spread to her bone and lungs,
76 DUO MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2012 duomagazine.com.au