Hello Larkspur and welcome to the forum.

I'm very sorry to hear your late husband and other members of his family have all passed away from stomach cancer, and for the worry this is causing your children.

You can find out more about inherited cancer genes and increased cancer risk and how to get tested, on our website but if you'd like to discuss this further with one of our cancer nurses, they're available on 0808 800 4040, Monday - Friday between 9a.m - 5p.m. They're very knowledgeable in this area so they will be able to answer your questions and hopefully put your minds at ease.

I hope this helps and that you hear back from some of our members soon.

Kind regards,

Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator

Hi Larkspur, 

I had a discussion with my Mum when she was first diagnosed with cancer and thought it “ran in our family”. 
Being an insensitive soul, I went through all the members of her family who had died of cancer and the type of cancer they’d died of. 
Almost all were heavy smoking, heavy drinking men and they’d all had cancers known to be caused by smoking. Mum was a heavy smoker and was partial to more than the odd glass of whisky (alcohol and smoking combined can have a multiplier effect. 
Stomach cancer is known to often be caused by smoking, did your husband and his family members smoke?
If they did, smoking is more likely than inherited cancer genes to pose the biggest risk to your children. 

I hope this makes sense.


Best wishes
Dave 

Hello Dave,

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me. I'm sorry that cancer has played it's part in your family as well. My husband  did smoke for over 20 years but did give up. He was a big beer drinker when he was younger for many years, but not so much as he got older. I'm not to sure about his mother but his sister who is now very poorly has smoked for 60 years of her life and would drink when she went out or would have a glass or two of wine when at home, so is having alcohol most days. Cancer UK has sent me some links to look into genetic cancers, so my children are able to do this if they want to. As a family we are trying to live our best lives, eating healthy meals from scratch, exercising and keeping our weight down. Myself and my children have never smoked and hardly ever have a drink, maybe my just to celebrate something.

I don't think you were being insensitive by asking questions about your family history because knowing about some things regarding health can be very helpful. I wish I had asked more when my parents and grandparents were alive.

Many thanks again,

Larkspur

Hi Larkspur,

That’s interesting and similar to my own family experience. Ironically, I’m the only “never smoker” in my family to have had cancer. I blame it on secondary smoking at home, college, work and in pubs.

Of my four grandparents, only one didn’t smoke and she lived to 92. The rest smoked like chimneys and died aged 52, 62 and 70. 

Best wishes
Dave