Angelina Jolie made headlines with her announcement that she underwent a preventive double mastectomy after learning that she carries a mutation of the BRCA1 gene, which significantly increases her risk of developing both breast and ovarian cancer. Ten years earlier, JABBER and previvor Jennifer McGrath made the same decision. In her own words, Jennifer explains how and why she elected what she feels were life-saving surgeries.

A Previvor's Story 

My sister was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 34.  When genetic testing

Jennifer McGrath and her sister Liz Rielly

revealed she was positive for a BRCA1 mutation, my younger brother and I were also tested and learned that we were BRCA1 positive as well. We had inherited the gene from our paternal grandmother who died from breast cancer at 38.

Watching my sister go through treatment, which included multiple surgeries and chemotherapy, I knew this was not a path I wanted to travel so I made the decision to undergo a prophylactic double mastectomy. A few years later, after the birth of my second child, I also elected to have a complete hysterectomy. I made the decision to have these surgeries because I constantly worried that I would develop cancer and not be around to raise my children.

My personal experience is the reason I founded Bluewater Babes Fish for a Cure in 2009 with my good friend and breast cancer survivor Christine Rinker. We wanted to make a difference locally through a fun and unique event that that gives help and hope to women facing some of the greatest challenges of their lives. Today, I am the healthy wife to a very supportive husband and mother to two beautiful children. It is because of them that my decision was an easy one to make. And it is because of the countless women who are faced with this decision each day that I share my story.