These are rough times for Hollywood star, Angelina Jolie. Just 2 weeks after revealing that she had undergone double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer (Read HERE), Angelina Jolie's aunt, 61-year-old Debbie Martin, died yesterday of the same disease. Debbie was the younger sister of Jolie's mother,
whose death from ovarian cancer in 2007 led to Jolie's decision to have
surgery. Debbie, like Jolie, had the defective BRCA1 gene, but she
didn't know it until after her 2004 cancer diagnosis,
"Had we known, we certainly would have done exactly what Angelina did,"
her husband said.
Angelina Jolie, who also lost her grand mother and great grand mother to cancer, plans to also remove her ovaries to further decrease her
chances of developing cancer. She
said: 'I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer was
higher than my risk of ovarian cancer and the surgery is much more
complex.'
Pls ladies, get tested for this gene, especially if you have female relatives who have/had cancer. Early detection makes all the difference in beating this life-threatening disease.
