Meet Laura from The Breast Awareness Clinic

Laura Naylor is a Senior Breast Clinical Nurse Specialist, and founder of The Breast Awareness Clinic, the UK’s first dedicated healthcare facility helping individuals to reduce their risk of breast cancer.

Laura has recently partnered with Prevent Breast Cancer, Prevent Cancer UK, and Antegenes to expand public access to advanced genetic testing that assesses an individual’s predisposition to developing breast cancer.

We had the opportunity to speak with Laura about the vision driving her clinic and her unwavering commitment to creating a future free from breast cancer.

Can you tell us about your background and the journey that led you to where you are today?

I am a Senior Breast Clinical Nurse Specialist, serving within the NHS for the past twenty years. With over a decade in breast oncology, my role has been diagnosing and treating breast cancer. My years of knowledge and experience has led me to focus on the prevention and prediction of breast cancer. Working alongside Prevent Breast Cancer founder Lester Barr MBE for many years taught me invaluable communication skills, as well as effective ways to advance healthcare and inspire others.

What inspired the creation of The Breast Awareness Clinic, and what services does it provide?

The clinic is to educate individuals on the importance of breast health, empower everyone to confidently perform self-examinations, support clients with up-to-date, accurate information and compassionate care and provide an individual accurate risk of breast cancer. Prediction, prevention and early detection is the ethos through examination, education and genetic testing. This service gives women something we’ve been missing for a long time – a chance to understand their breast cancer risk early and act on it in a way that fits their life.

Could you share the how your partnership with Prevent Breast Cancer began?

I’ve had the privilege of working at the Nightingale Centre for over fifteen years, closely alongside Prevent Breast Cancer. During that time, the charity has supported my personal growth by providing funding for professional development.

Ongoing research is vital for future generations, with Prevent Breast Cancer at the forefront, of which I am proud to be part of. So much so, that I invite my clients to optionally donate to the charity because I feel so strongly about your charity’s work.

There is a strong alignment between the goals of The Breast Awareness Clinic and those of Prevent Breast Cancer. What Prevent Breast Cancer voice and strive for, The Breast Awareness Clinic provide. Promoting early diagnosis, screening and lifestyle changes are what the clinic teaches and works towards. I assess each client individually on their personal needs and tailor my recommendations to improve their overall health and reduce their risk of breast cancer.

How do you envision the future landscape of breast cancer?

I see the future of breast cancer based around individualised genetic testing in order to predict and prevent. My collaboration with Prevent Breast Cancer, Preventcancer UK and Antegenes will allow the public to pay for testing, which is presently not available on the NHS.

The Personalised Breast Cancer Prevention Plan offered by Preventcancer UK uses AnteBC, which is a SNP-based Polygenic Risk Score test developed by Antegenes.

A Polygenic Risk Score (PRS) estimates your risk of developing certain cancers, including breast, based on your genes and instead of looking at just one gene, it looks at these tiny DNA fragments called SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms), which can affect your risk of developing breast cancer.

This is important because it is possible to lower your risk of the disease through lifestyle modifications. Knowledge is indeed power.

Genetic and SNP testing alongside practical hands-on breast cancer prevention tools provided by The Breast Awareness Clinic are the first steps towards a breast cancer free world.

Thank you to Laura for sharing her insights today. Learn more about Antegene PRS tests today. To explore Laura’s impactful work further, visit The Breast Awareness Clinic website.