Burst PIP implant ‘gave my breast-fed girl cancer’

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Horrified mum's claim

Tragic ... Lucy Petagine with five-year-old Luna

A DISTRAUGHT mother whose PIP implant exploded while she was breast-feeding fears it could have caused her daughter's cancer.

Lucy Petagine's five-year-old daughter Luna was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour at just 18 months.

Medics say they can't rule out a link between her breast implants — made with industrial-grade silicone designed to be used as mattress filler — and Luna's illness.

Lucy, 38, said: "The best the doctors can tell me is, 'We just don't know enough about it'. Frankly, I think it's time someone found out for sure what these things have done to our bodies."

A private surgeon at Highgate Hospital, North London, carried out the procedure in 2001 — boosting Lucy's breast size from A to a D cup. There is nothing to suggest the hospital is at fault for the rupture or any of the subsequent events.

PIP owner ... Jean-Claude Mas

After Luna was born in 2007, Lucy's right implant ruptured but her NHS doctor said it wasn't a risk and she could breastfeed as normal.

Little Luna was later diagnosed with a brain tumour called an ependymoma, which affects her central nervous system and will continue to grow until it kills her.

Lucy, of Watford, Herts, and husband Mario, 43, are now worried about their other daughter Enza, three, who was also breastfed.

Fears over a link between PIP implants and cancer were raised last December. The firm — owned by Jean-Claude Mas, 72 — went into administration last year. Its implants were banned after patients suffered ruptures.