Team GB rowing cox Erin Kennedy returns to training after double mastectomy

A Team GB Olympic and Paralympic cox has spoken of her joy at returning to training after being diagnosed with breast cancer at just 29.

World champion rowing cox Erin Kennedy posted an emotional tweet saying ‘the comeback is well underway’ with a photo of her boarding a plane bound for a Team GB Paris 2024 training camp.  

The 30-year-old from Oxfordshire, who was awarded an MBE for services to rowing, was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer after finding a lump in her breast while away training and racing with the GB Rowing Team in Italy in May 2022.

Following chemotherapy, earlier this year, she also underwent a double mastectomy due to a family history of the disease. Her paternal grandmother and two great-aunts had breast cancer, as did one of her father’s sisters.

She captioned the photograph this week with the words: ‘Made it on training camp. HUGE milestone. Started the season with 10 chemos and a double mastectomy. The comeback is well underway.’

Kennedy will now train with teammates in preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

The inspirational rowing cox led her boat to gold while in the middle of a course of treatment for breast cancer last year at the European para-rowing championships in Munich in August. 

Kennedy, who is married to Sam, a major in the Royal Logistic Corps, coxed her crew – Frankie Allen, Giedre Rakauskaite, Ed Fuller and Ollie Stanhope – to victory in the PR3 mixed coxed four final. 

Cox Erin Kennedy, far right, pictured winning gold at the Paralympics in Japan in 2021

The athlete has endured 10 rounds of chemotherapy and underwent a double mastectomy earlier this year

The 30-year-old pictured in March with members of her breast care team 

She made an emotional return to the sport last summer, taking a chemo break to compete with the Team GB paralympic rowing team 

Kennedy pictured after winning the European para-rowing championship in Munich last year

Scans in November last year revealed that the chemotherapy had shrunk the tumour to an ‘unmeasurable’ size.

She wrote at the time: ‘Let’s start with the Headline… during an ultrasound scan today, I learnt that my breast cancer lump has reduced to an “unmeasurable size”. This doesn’t mean I am cancer free (read more for detail) BUT, it is MASSIVELY AMAZING NEWS!!’

Earlier that month, Kennedy was awarded her MBE by the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle. 

After being diagnosed with the disease, she vowed to keep as involved as she could with the sport. 

In remarks to Olympics.com, she discussed the shock of receiving the diagnosis earlier this year and the realisation that she would have to undergo gruelling treatment.

She said: ‘Genuinely, I was like, “What about rowing because it’s a fundamental part of my life?’ 

It’s not something that I would ever want to just walk away from. I wasn’t just going to basically go home and sit and wallow.”

The athlete and husband Sam now have nine embryos ‘on ice’ in case her treatment has affected her fertility.

Triple negative breast cancer is an aggressive form of the disease which has a greater risk of recurring within the first five years. 

However, those who are disease-free after five years are 97 per cent likely to remain so within ten years from diagnosis, and 95 per cent within 15 years. 

Triple negative breast cancer accounts for 15 to 20 per cent of cases and is more common in women under 40 and black women.

Its name is derived from the fact that it is not triggered by the hormones oestrogen and progesterone, and it makes very little or no HER2, a protein that stimulates some breast cancers to grow.