My Road to a New Beginning
With a breast cancer survivor for a mother and a physician for a father, in addition to a strong family history of ovarian cancer, regimented monitoring for abnormalities was routine in my late teens and early twenties. After losing a friend to breast cancer at an early age and experiencing a scare of my own, which led to the removal of a benign lump, testing for the BRCA gene mutation was an obvious decision. There was very little shock when the test results were positive. Though we already had two children, my husband and I made family planning a priority, so that we could begin to take steps toward prevention in a timely manner.
Within a year after my fourth child was born, I began the process of prophylactic procedures to minimize my risk of becoming ill. Over the next two years, I would undergo a bilateral oophorectomy, a bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction, and a full hysterectomy, while enduring a number of minor complications along the way. The road seemed long and the journey had many ups and downs. In the end, the empowerment that came from confronting and conquering the challenges moved me to realign my priori-ties and inspired me to become involved with Sharsheret.
As a peer supporter and a community advocate for Sharsheret, and in speaking about my experiences with the BRCA gene muta-tion, I aim to provide women and their families with the comfort and encouragement that I did not seek when I needed it most. Because of Sharsheret, I have had the opportunity to influence women who may be facing breast or ovarian cancer and to demon-strate that they can meet the challenges head on and then look to the future without fear of inevitable illness. The opportunity to make a positive impact has been Sharsheret’s priceless gift to me, for which I am deeply grateful.