'Our family has been through so much': All four members of Glasgow family diagnosed with cancer

And while mum Anne Peters and daughter Claire Cobban have both survived breast cancer, they lost dad and husband Graham, and son and brother Mark to the disease.

Mark was just 33 when he was found to have urachal cancer, an incredibly rare form of the illness, and he died months later in 2011.

Just a few years later, Graham was diagnosed with kidney cancer and he passed away in 2017.

Still reeling from the loss of her brother and dad, Claire was diagnosed with breast cancer less than a year later a few days before her 39th birthday.

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Then, last March, Anne was also diagnosed with breast cancer.

Claire, 43, told the Glasgow Times: “I know only too well the impact this terrible disease has on families.

"I was 38 and my younger son was just 18-months-old when I was diagnosed with cancer. 

"Mum and I were still struggling with the loss of my brother and my dad as we missed them so much. 

"I remember worrying about even telling my mum that I had cancer. I felt so anxious. 

"Our family had already been through so much."

Claire said that when Mark became ill none of the family had even heard of his type of cancer.

By the time he had symptoms and was diagnosed, the disease had spread "extensively".

The loss came as a huge shock to the family with Mark passing away at the age of just 34. 

Claire said: "My children didn’t get the chance to meet their uncle Mark and I’ve always been very aware that Mark had a very unusual cancer. 

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"It has drummed home to me the fact there is a lot of work still needing done to understand the different forms of cancer, how they can get diagnosed and treated so they can respond to medication."

Dad Graham's cancer had also spread when he was diagnosed and the disease did not respond to treatment, leaving Claire and Anne facing a second brutal loss in 2017.

In May 2018, Claire found a lump in her breast but said she was not "unduly concerned" yet went to have it checked out just in case.

On May 24 she was diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery before six months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, mostly at the New Victoria Hospital.

Anne was living in the Lake District at the time but came up to Glasgow to help care for her daughter.

Claire, from Shawlands, added: "Mum was brilliant. She’d come to stay, make dinner for our boys if I didn’t feel great, help keep things ticking along and just listen if I wanted to talk. 

"Last year when mum got news she had breast cancer the tables were turned and I helped her. 

"I’m proud of how my mum has tackled everything. 

"She’s wonderful and l love that she’s well to enjoy life as a mum and a grandma."

As part of her attempts to move on from the disease, Claire retrained as a personal trainer and partner David, 50, popped the question on Christmas Day after she had completed treatment.

On October 24, 2020, when the couple tied the knot at Pollok House there were hopes the family could finally put cancer behind them. 

But they were devastated in March 2021, when Anne, 69, discovered she too had breast cancer. 

Anne said: “I was devastated when Claire was diagnosed with breast cancer. Our family had lost my son, my husband. 

"When Claire got this diagnosis I remember saying to all my friends it should be me. 

"And then last year I myself was diagnosed with breast cancer. 

"Claire has just been so wonderful. I now realise exactly what she’d gone through. 

"I have found it very, very difficult to be perfectly honest and she’s just been incredible. 

"She’s been there every step. I am so proud. She has two young children, she’s working. 

"She just does so much and it shows you what folk can do. She really is an inspiration and I love her to bits."

Mother and daughter are now both thankfully in remission and have vowed to do everything they can to help give others more time with their loved ones. 

Claire, who is mum to children Alexander, eight, and Archie, five, now plans to share her story at the Business Beat Cancer Glasgow dinner at the Grand Central Hotel on September 15 for Cancer Research UK. 

Claire said: "While there have been huge advances in treatment options for more common cancers like breast cancer, there is so much more to do.”

The annual Business Beats Cancer Glasgow fundraising dinner for Cancer Research UK marked its fifth anniversary in February 2020, just weeks before Covid-19 hit. 

More than £350,000 has been raised so far to fund research into gentler and more effective treatments for cancer. 

The pandemic meant it was not possible for a Business Beats Cancer dinner to run last year but it is back for 2022 and has inspired similar Business

Beats Cancer events across the UK  including Edinburgh, Dundee, Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff and Ayrshire. 

Every year around 33,200 people are diagnosed with cancer in Scotland and one in two people in the UK born after 1960 will get cancer in their lifetime.

Cancer Research UK relationship manager, Christine Clark, said: “We are incredibly grateful to Claire for sharing her own family’s story and to all members of the Business Beats Cancer board who are working hard to make the annual dinner in Glasgow a success."

For further information about sponsorship opportunities at the Business Beats Cancer dinner on September 15 in Glasgow contact Christine Clark on Christine.Clark@cancer.org.uk.