Shirley McQueen is a fashion store owner. She lives in terror of something her family calls ‘the beast’. It’s killed 14 of her relatives, but Shirley McQueen has a radical plan to evade the disease. Shirley McQueen has spent most of her life preparing for her death; she has even planned her funeral.

“The Beast” in actual, the breast cancer, felled her mother, her older sister, five of her aunts, one great, great aunt and six of her cousins. Another cousin in the United States has just found out that “the beast” has attacked her too.

Shirley has decided to remove both her breasts to prevent her from getting the disease. “Every woman who has died in my family has died of breast cancer,” she says.

“The women in my family haven’t lived long enough to see their grandchildren. When my older sister was diagnosed, her daughter was pregnant and she said she was going to hang on to see the baby, but she didn’t manage it. If I ask to be here to see my grandchildren, am I asking too much?”

She will be checking into a clinic next month for pre-surgery checks before undergoing breast-removal surgery.

Frustrated with death and attending funerals, McQueen, whose mother died of breast cancer when she was five years old, is determined to see her children get married, hence her drastic pre-emptive move.

And not even a man would have a say in her decision.

She said: “Even if I had a man, it wouldn’t matter. I don’t want to die prematurely. I want to see my children marry. My mom did not have that opportunity. None of the women in my family did. This is a lot easier to deal with than finding a lump in my breast.”

“My family has tried to dissuade me. They think that illness comes directly from God and that you shouldn’t play around with God’s work,” she says.

But Shirley firmly believes that more can be done to reverse the horrible fate of women like herself, and that awareness needs to be raised about breast cancer, particularly in the black community. Regular breast checks, screening and, in cases like hers, preventative mastectomies should all be considered, she says.

McQueen says that she is undergoing her surgery for the sake of her children. “I’m not frightened of dying but I am frightened of leaving my children. I’m always thinking about dying and I want that to stop. Once I’ve had the surgery I’ll be able to sleep again. All I want is to have my life.”