FIGHTING SPIRIT
As Breast Cancer Awareness Month begins, tabloid! looks at the celebrity women who have battled the disease
In May 2013, Angelina Jolie stunned the world when she revealed her decision to get a double mastectomy after finding out she had a faulty gene, BRCA1, which increases the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer.
Ina New York Times op-ed, the award-winning actress and humanitarian wrote about her mother’s decade-long cancer with battle, which resulted in her death, aged 56.
“My doctors estimated that I had an 87 per cent risk of breast cancer and a 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman,” Jolie wrote. “Once I knew that this was my reality… I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy.”
Jolie stated the reason she took her battle public was in hope that other women could benefit from her experience. “Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people’s hearts… But today it is possible to find out through a blood test whether you are highly susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer, and then take action,” she said.