'She's my mom and my best friend - we're in it to the end': High School student, 18, and her mother diagnosed with same aggressive breast cancer within just THREE months
- Emily Carnes from Daytona Beach, Florida, found lump after 18th birthday
- Now her mother Kendra has been diagnosed with exactly the same disease
- The pair both have the BRCA2 gene which makes them more susceptible
- But they remain positive, visiting hospitals together and raising awareness
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An 18-year-old High School senior and her mother have been diagnosed with the same aggressive form of breast cancer within just three months of each other.
Emily Carnes found a tennis ball-sized lump just after her 18th birthday, against odds of less than one in 18 million for a girl of her age.
When her mother Kendra Firmingham, 38, went to get tested too, the results were devastating - they both had the same stage three invasive breast cancer.
Closer than ever: Emily Carnes (left) found a tennis ball sized lump just after her 18th birthday. Now her mother Kendra Firmingham, 38 (right) has been diagnosed with breast cancer just three months after her
Smiling: Emily with friends before she began chemotherapy (left) and at a theme park more recently (right)
Smiling: Emily and her mother (right) say they want to turn the diagnosis - against odds of one in many million - into raising awareness for other women. They are best friends and go to all their appointments together
Now Emily - who still goes to High School, parties with her friends and works two part-time jobs like any other teenager - says the double diagnosis brought the two of them closer than ever.
And the pair are using their condition to raise awareness and urge other women to get tested.
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ShareSpeaking from Seabreeze High School near her home in Daytona Beach, Florida, Emily told MailOnline: 'We've always been really close - she's my mom and my best friend. She's taught me everything I know.
'Us both being diagnosed with breast cancer has brought us even closer. We go to every doctor's appointment and every chemotherapy session together.
'We're in it to the end.'
Emily was diagnosed with the disease in February after finding a tennis ball-sized lump soon after her 18th birthday.
Big support: A collage of photos created by Emily's friends to support her through months of chemotherapy
Emily said: 'One of the most supportive things my friends have done for me is help me feel that it's not a burden. We bring it up when it's necessary but they don't dwell on it or make me feel different'
Since then she has had a gruelling round of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy.
She was told her hair would fall out - so she and friends bunched it into pigtails in the back yard and chopped it off.
Then, a few weeks ago, her mother discovered a lump in almost the same part of her chest.
She was tested and diagnosed with exactly the same form of breast cancer at exactly the same stage, against odds of one in several million.
The teenager said she has received nothing but support from neighbours, friends and her family, including her father John Carnes and 14-year-old sister.
And despite the rare nature of her illness, her friends treat her like any other High School senior.
Emily said: 'Us both being diagnosed with breast cancer has brought us even closer. We go to every doctor's appointment and every chemotherapy session together. We're in it to the end'
HOW OUR GENES LEAVE US AT GREATER RISK OF BREAST CANCER
Called tumor suppressors, the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes repair damaged DNA and stop cells clustering into cancerous lumps.
But some people are born with faulty versions of the genes, leaving them far more susceptible to breast cancer.
While 12 per cent of women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, the risk more than trebles for those with a faulty gene.
For those with a mutated BRCA1 gene the odds are 55 to 65 per cent, and for those with BRCA2 they are around 45 per cent.
The risk is so high that many healthy women with the faulty gene have mastectomies to reduce their risk in future.
The most famous was Angelina Jolie (above), who made headlines when she revealed she had a faulty BRCA1 gene and doctors had told her she had an 87 per cent risk.
For more information on how to get tested visit breastcancer.org.
'One of the most supportive things they've done for me is help me feel that it's not a burden,' she said.
'We bring it up when it's necessary but they don't dwell on it or make me feel different.'
The mother and daughter went for genetic testing and discovered they were both born with a faulty BRCA2 gene, which controls the body's ability to stop tumors forming.
It is similar to BRCA1, which received huge publicity when Angelina Jolie revealed she was carrying a faulty version and had a mastectomy to lower her odds of getting cancer.
Women whose BRCA2 has mutated have a 45 per cent chance of developing breast cancer in their lifetime - but cases in teenagers are still almost completely unheard of.
Emily's 14-year-old sister Kaylee is now also being tested for the gene.
Doctors told Emily the odds of a 20-year-old woman developing her strain of breast cancer would be 18 million to one, and no one has compiled accurate figures for 18-year-olds.
She said: 'That's exactly why I want to raise awareness. If you find a lump you should check it out, no matter what age you are.'
There are five stages of breast cancer, ranging from Stage Zero to Stage Four, with Zero the least severe and Four the worst.
At stage three, which mother and daughter both have, cancerous cells have spread beyond the tumor itself but have not affected distant organs.
Around half of women with stage three cancer live for more than five years after being diagnosed, and 40 per cent live for more than 10 years.
Friends are fundraising for the mother and daughter's medical bills. Visit their Team Emily page for more information.
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