City mum-of-four's cancer fears over recalled breast implants

A Norwich boxer is urging women considering breast implants to be cautious as she waits in fear about being formally diagnosed with cancer. 

Carla McKenzie-Le Roy, 35, of Elizabeth Fry Road, first noticed one breast was much bigger than the other when she was on holiday in the Canary Islands in October. 

It continued to get much bigger after she returned home. 

Mrs McKenzie-Le Roy was booked into a cancer clinic in Norwich on January 3 and was subsequently told there were cancer cells present. 

The boxer, who runs Assassins Gym with her husband Alan, 43, now has an appointment booked in Leeds on February 15 to confirm if she has BIA-ALCL.

This is a type of lymphoma that can develop around breast implants.

She has opted to travel to West Yorkshire as the surgeon in question is a specialist in en-bloc capsulectomy, a surgical procedure carried out at the same time as a breast implant removal.

Mrs McKenzie-Le Roy said: "Allergan textured breast implants were recalled January 2019 due to health risks.

"But I wasn't made aware of this or told what to look out for. 

"It's not nice. I have spoken to lots of people about it. One woman had her transplant removed later than me in December. 

"I think it spread and she had chemotherapy. It's worrying for me to know I am a few months behind her." 

Mrs McKenzie-Le Roy had her breast implant done at cosmetic surgery specialists in London in March 2019.

She said: "I was quite flat-chested growing up. I had them done to increase them from an A-cup back up to an E-cup. I always covered them up but it made me feel more like a woman. 

"The Allergan textured implants were used as I had very little breast tissue.

"I want to highlight my case purely to raise awareness to help lives being lost.

"I now think they are an absolutely atrocious thing to put in your body." 

A Just Giving page to raise funds to help with the costs of Mrs McKenzie-Le Roy travelling for surgery in Leeds can be found here.