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Off. • Angelina Jolie: I had a double mastectomy • Cathy Newman: Jolie
showed no sign of the pain • Alice Arnold: Jolie won't be any less of a
woman • Cristina Odone: Brava, Angelina Jolie • The more Jolie talks
about breast cancer, the better • How Jolie ...
Thank You, Angelina Jolie
Posted: 05/14/2013 1:14 pm
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Because today, Angelina Jolie has come out, sharing that she is BRCA1 positive. What does that mean? It means a genetic mutation in her body gives her an 87 percent chance of getting breast cancer, and a 50 percent lifetime risk of ovarian cancer (the same cancer that took her own mother at the age of 56). It's a genetic mutation I'm quite familiar with, because I have it, too.
And like me, Angelina Jolie opted to do whatever she could to drastically decrease the odds of being diagnosed with cancer -- she underwent a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy, which she wrote about in the New York Times:
Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy. I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer is higher than my risk of ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex. On April 27, I finished the three months of medical procedures that the mastectomies involved. During that time I have been able to keep this private and to carry on with my work.By going public with this, Angelina has an opportunity to educate those who might not understand the genetic risk and open a dialog that can lead to more research, resources and support for those who need it.
But I am writing about it now because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience. Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people's hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness. 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.
I choose not to keep my story private because there are many women who do not know that they might be living under the shadow of cancer. It is my hope that they, too, will be will able to get gene tested, and that if they have a high risk they, too, will know that they have strong options.I'll probably never get to tell Angelina how much her going public with her story has touched me and potentially helped so many. But if I did, I would share how I, too, understand what it's like to lose a mom too young; how I know how it feels to have cancer hang over me every single day, leaving me terrified that I'd ultimately be taken from my husband and children. I'd share my eternal gratitude for her courageous fight and important way she's come forward to share her experience with the world. (Hey, we could also compare notes on having biological and adopted children, along with studly and supportive husbands, right?)
Thank you, Angelina Jolie, from the bottom of my heart.
Originally posted on PSJackie.com
Follow Jackie Morgan MacDougall on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JackieMacD
Angelina Jolie reveals she had a double mastectomy: latest
Brad Pitt has spoken of his partner's heroism, saying: "All I want is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children".
Angelina Jolie is praised for her bravery after revealing that she “proactively” underwent a double mastectomy Photo: AP
6:22PM BST 14 May 2013
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This page will automatically update every 90 secondsOn
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• Angelina
Jolie: I had a double mastectomy
• Cathy Newman: Jolie showed no sign of the pain
• Alice Arnold: Jolie won't be any less of a woman
• The more Jolie talks about breast cancer, the better
• How Jolie continued her activism during treatment
• Hague hails Jolie as a 'brave lady'
• Telegraph breast cancer Q&A series
• Cathy Newman: Jolie showed no sign of the pain
• Alice Arnold: Jolie won't be any less of a woman
• The more Jolie talks about breast cancer, the better
• How Jolie continued her activism during treatment
• Hague hails Jolie as a 'brave lady'
• Telegraph breast cancer Q&A series
Latest
18.22 Brad Pitt tweeted his thanks to the Pink Lotus Breast Clinic on May 14.
The clinic, founded in 2007, is designed to offer integrated healthcare,
including prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
The clinic was founded by surgical breast specialist Dr Kristi Funk, and her
husband and business partner, Andy Funk. Past patients of Dr Funk include
singer Sheryl Cole.
The flagship centre, in Beverly Hills, was opened in 2009, and a second centre
is located in Santa Monica.
In 2012 was the first medical provider in the country to make Contrast
Enhanced Spectral Mammography, which is designed to minimise the delay
between screening and diagnosis, available to its patients.
18.15 Life for Angelina's six children remained the same even after having the surgery, according to sources speaking to People.
Things have appeared normal. The kids have kept their schedules as usual.
They have been in school during the day and have attended after-school activities like they always do.
The magazine reports that less than two weeks after the operation - on Valentine's Day - Jolie and Pitt took their four-year-old twins to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.
17.15 Jolie's decision could go beyond her hopes of raising breast cancer awareness. Dr Brooke Magnanti, who writes for Telegraph Wonder Women, said the actress's surgery will also shine a spotlight on American healthcare reforms.
Angelina's surgery has opened a whole can of worms for the US medical system.
Health care reform keeps getting pushed back but is essential for women's
quality of life. Testing for the gene and the surgeries she has had are
expensive - but rounds of chemo and radiation therapy can cost even more.
Which makes more sense economically and holistically? I hope American
politicians take this and other women's health issues seriously as a result.
You know what they say about prevention being better than cure.
16.50 Cathy Newman, who was with Jolie and the Foreign Secretary during their gruelling March trip to the DRC, has written for Telegraph's Women section on her admiration for the actress's determination.
Filming the pair of them I had not the slightest inkling of what she was
going through. We travelled for hours to various camps for people displaced
by the war, along horrendously bumpy, volcanic tracks. It was uncomfortable
for someone in peak condition, but for a woman recovering from major surgery
I can only imagine how difficult it must have been... And there was never a
word of complaint or any sign of the pain.
That she went ahead in the middle of the operations to remove her breasts, is a testimony to her passionate support for the campaign which took her to the Congo – tackling sexual violence in the war zone. And it strikes me now that what motivates her vocal interest in that issue is what also inspired her to write today's article in the New York Times: a determination to empower women.
Angelina Jolie and William Hague in the DRC in March
16.43 Jolie is not the only woman to face the threat of breast cancer while in the spotlight. Reuters have taken a look back at other woman who have faced the disease, including Kylie Minogue and Olivia Newton-John.
Sheryl Crow (diagnosed with early stage breast cancer in 2006) said at the time: "I can safely say my life has changed in every way. I feel keenly aware of how precious and fleeting life is."
16.32 Hadley Freeman over at the Guardian has written that Jolie's service to women with today's announcement extends beyond breast cancer awareness: she has also "challenged the celebrity industry to rethink its bizarre values".
Freeman continues:
For a young, beautiful actress to announce that she has had her breasts
removed is, as career moves go, somewhat akin to a handsome leading man
announcing he is gay, and that is disgusting and ridiculous on both counts.
Ultimately, she has challenged not just her own public image but also the
wearisome cliche of what makes a woman sexy, and how a woman considered to
be sexy talks about her body...
For a woman who has routinely won in those most crucial of elections – the Sexiest Woman in the World – Jolie has, really, never shown much interest in sharing herself or her body with the public. This makes her decision to do so now in the most personal of ways more powerful, but also, to a certain degree, more understandable.
15.32 Brad Pitt has spoken out, telling the Evening Standard that he finds his partner's decision "heroic".
Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie’s choice, as well as
so many others like her, absolutely heroic. I thank our medical team for
their care and focus.
All I want for is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children. This is a happy day for our family.
Angelina Jolie with her 'loving and supportive' partner Brad Pitt.
Picture: AP
14.30 Not all breast cancer is caused by mutations in the BRCA1 gene that Jolie inherited from her mother. Dr Jo Morris, senior lecturer in the School of Cancer Sciences at the University of Birmingham, has written for us explaining just what BRCA1 is and why it matters.
We all have the BRCA1 gene, she explains, but in some cases - like Jolie's - it is broken, leading to a cell that grows where it shouldn't, causing cancer.
The chance that any one person has a mutation in this BRCA1 is thankfully
rare. The prevalence of BRCA1 and BRCA2 ( BRCA1’s sister gene) mutation
carriers in the general population is estimated at between 1 in 800 and 1 in
1000 and less than 10% of breast cancer is caused by changes in these genes.
Being at high risk is related to the number and age of affected family members and whether ovarian or male breast cancer is in the family. For most women, increasing age is the greatest risk factor for breast cancer. The great majority of women with a family history of breast cancer do not fall into a high-risk category and do not develop breast cancer and the majority of women with a relative with breast cancer are not at substantially increased risk of breast cancer themselves.
In Angelina’s case the genetic change means the BRCA1 gene is not able to prevent changes in her cellular blueprint and as such she was at very high risk of breast cancer (around 80% chance by the age of 70). She has defended herself against this by a double mastectomy.
At the University of Birmingham we work on trying to identify which changes are most risky for disease development and how it is that this gene normally prevents cancer development. The gene changes are a clue to help us get to the bottom of how breast cancer develops. Of course no matter how rare the causes of disease, if it’s your own family with it its rarity in other people is no consolation. The news today is of a brave woman’s decision.
14.00 It seems the collective hope that Jolie's decision to talk about her double mastectomy will make breast cancer less taboo is already having effect: a CNN anchor has revealed on-air that she, too, has breast cancer and will be undergoing the same operation.
Zoraida Sambolin, who anchors CNN's "Early Start" morning show, talked about her condition on the show today while discussing Jolie's article.
Sambolin said wanting to be there for her children helped her make the decision, AP reported.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph's Deputy Women Editor Louisa Peacock says in the video below that Jolie's decision is uniting women against breast cancer:
13.48 Twitter also hailed Jolie's decision, both to have the operation and to make it public:
<noframe>Twitter: Tina Brown - Bravo Angelina for your brave decision & candor in sharing your story to help so many other women with similar issues <a href="http://t.co/OljSvmjHXy" target="_blank">http://t.co/OljSvmjHXy</a></noframe>
<noframe>Twitter: Nicholas Kristof - A brave and bold essay by Angelina Jolie about an excruciating medical choice she had to make: <a href="http://t.co/JWRPCespDa" target="_blank">http://t.co/JWRPCespDa</a></noframe>
And it's not just the US/UK. Over in China:
<noframe>Twitter: XQ - "Angelina Jolie double mastectomy" trending on Weibo, netizen translated Jolie's NYT article.Over 2166370 posts already.</noframe>
13.21 It's not just breast cancer campaigners who are praising Jolie today. Here is a round-up of Telegraph commentary so far:
Cristina Odone: Brava, Angelina Jolie
No room for self-pity or histrionics as she decides to cut off her
beautiful breasts. ... Here is the most coveted woman on earth (gorgeous,
bright, do-gooding and partnered by Brad Pitt to boot) saying she's removed
her breasts to improve her chances of survival...
Angelina Jolie could have concealed her operation – as so many other noteworthy figures have done in the past, she could have pretended to be the indestructible picture of health. A catalogue of big names have hidden their health conditions, lest the public despise their vulnerability.
Jolie instead has dared bring her decision out into the open. She has braved disfigurement. She has shown what really matters. This has proved her greatest role thus far.
Alice Arnold: Angelina won't be any less of a woman
[Jolie wrote that she was] fully supported by her husband Brad Pitt. It
seems strange to me that this even needs to be mentioned. I can’t believe
that any self-respecting partner would NOT support it.
This is where I get angry. The pathetic anachronism of ‘Page 3' perpetuates the fallacy that a woman is only a woman if she has two enormous breasts, thrust forward with nipples erect. It is childish, offensive and more importantly, dangerous...
So what is important, our health or our femininity?
Joanna Forest: I was 21 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and it was taboo
I can still remember the shock and fright I felt as if it was yesterday. At
that time there wasn't anybody like Angelina Jolie who I was aware of
talking about their own experiences and I felt alone...
That's why it's brilliant that Angelina Jolie is talking about it. The more people can talk about their experiences, then maybe it stops being a taboo...
To have a double mastectomy is extreme. Jolie has gone to great lengths to make sure she never gets breast cancer. She must have felt for her that this drastic operation was well worth it.
12.59 Breast cancer kills half a million women annually. Recently the Telegraph ran a five-part series of Q&A videos with our blogger Judith Potts, who has written extensively on breast cancer, and two breast cancer charities.
The full series is here, and the first part is embedded below.
Below, we've listed some other breast cancer resources in the UK. Tweet any ones I've left out to @sarahtitterton, or leave them in the comments section below:
National Health Service information on breast cancer
Breakthrough Breast Cancer
National Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline
Breast Cancer Campaign
Breast Cancer Care
Cancer Research UK (Race for Life)
12.42 Praise has also poured in for Jolie from breast cancer campaigners.
Wendy Watson, who founded the UK’s National Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline after she underwent a double mastectomy aged 37 in 1992, welcomed Jolie’s move.
Mrs Watson, from near Bakewell in Derbyshire, said: "It is excellent because it is the highest profile you can get for it... She [Jolie] probably feels that undergoing the operation is common sense but it probably does take a certain amount of courage to face it."
Katherine Woods from Breast Cancer Campaign has also spoken out:
12.30 Jolie said the series of operations began on February 2, and were completed on April 27. During that time, she travelled to the Congo with William Hague to visit refugee camps as part of a campaign to highlight the issue of mass rape in conflict areas.
Today, Mr Hague was full of praise for Jolie, telling Sky News:
She
is a courageous lady and a very professional lady. She's done a lot of work
with me in recent months.
She also came over to the G8 foreign ministers' summit in London to work with me on our initiative on preventing sexual violence in conflict and travelled with me through some difficult places in the Congo.
She gave no sign that she was undergoing such treatment and I think she's a very brave lady, not only to carry on with her work so well during such treatment, but also to write about it now and talk about it. I think that she's a brave lady and will be an inspiration to many.
11.50 Welcome to our coverage as reaction pours in to Angelina Jolie's announcement that she has undergone a preventative double mastectomy in order to lower her risk of developing breast cancer.
The 37-year-old activist and actress, whose own mother died at the age of 56 after a decade of fighting cancer, revealed her decision in a moving op-ed piece for the New York Times this morning.
Titled simply 'My Medical Choice', and bylined 'By Angelina Jolie', the piece details - in straightforward, matter-of-fact language - her three months of operations and her desire to share her experience in hopes of saving other lives.
Jolie said she made the difficult decision to have surgery after doctors told her that her faulty gene, known as BRCA1, meant she had an 87 per cent risk of developing breast cancer and a 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer.
She wrote:
Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to
minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive
double mastectomy...
I am writing about it now because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience. Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people’s hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness. 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...
I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 per cent to under 5 per cent.
I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.
Our morning story on Jolie's announcement is here.
18.15 Life for Angelina's six children remained the same even after having the surgery, according to sources speaking to People.
Things have appeared normal. The kids have kept their schedules as usual.
They have been in school during the day and have attended after-school activities like they always do.
The magazine reports that less than two weeks after the operation - on Valentine's Day - Jolie and Pitt took their four-year-old twins to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.
17.15 Jolie's decision could go beyond her hopes of raising breast cancer awareness. Dr Brooke Magnanti, who writes for Telegraph Wonder Women, said the actress's surgery will also shine a spotlight on American healthcare reforms.
Angelina's surgery has opened a whole can of worms for the US medical system.
Health care reform keeps getting pushed back but is essential for women's
quality of life. Testing for the gene and the surgeries she has had are
expensive - but rounds of chemo and radiation therapy can cost even more.
Which makes more sense economically and holistically? I hope American
politicians take this and other women's health issues seriously as a result.
You know what they say about prevention being better than cure.
16.50 Cathy Newman, who was with Jolie and the Foreign Secretary during their gruelling March trip to the DRC, has written for Telegraph's Women section on her admiration for the actress's determination.
Filming the pair of them I had not the slightest inkling of what she was
going through. We travelled for hours to various camps for people displaced
by the war, along horrendously bumpy, volcanic tracks. It was uncomfortable
for someone in peak condition, but for a woman recovering from major surgery
I can only imagine how difficult it must have been... And there was never a
word of complaint or any sign of the pain.
That she went ahead in the middle of the operations to remove her breasts, is a testimony to her passionate support for the campaign which took her to the Congo – tackling sexual violence in the war zone. And it strikes me now that what motivates her vocal interest in that issue is what also inspired her to write today's article in the New York Times: a determination to empower women.
Angelina Jolie and William Hague in the DRC in March
16.43 Jolie is not the only woman to face the threat of breast cancer while in the spotlight. Reuters have taken a look back at other woman who have faced the disease, including Kylie Minogue and Olivia Newton-John.
Sheryl Crow (diagnosed with early stage breast cancer in 2006) said at the time: "I can safely say my life has changed in every way. I feel keenly aware of how precious and fleeting life is."
16.32 Hadley Freeman over at the Guardian has written that Jolie's service to women with today's announcement extends beyond breast cancer awareness: she has also "challenged the celebrity industry to rethink its bizarre values".
Freeman continues:
For a young, beautiful actress to announce that she has had her breasts
removed is, as career moves go, somewhat akin to a handsome leading man
announcing he is gay, and that is disgusting and ridiculous on both counts.
Ultimately, she has challenged not just her own public image but also the
wearisome cliche of what makes a woman sexy, and how a woman considered to
be sexy talks about her body...
For a woman who has routinely won in those most crucial of elections – the Sexiest Woman in the World – Jolie has, really, never shown much interest in sharing herself or her body with the public. This makes her decision to do so now in the most personal of ways more powerful, but also, to a certain degree, more understandable.
15.32 Brad Pitt has spoken out, telling the Evening Standard that he finds his partner's decision "heroic".
Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie’s choice, as well as
so many others like her, absolutely heroic. I thank our medical team for
their care and focus.
All I want for is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children. This is a happy day for our family.
Angelina Jolie with her 'loving and supportive' partner Brad Pitt.
Picture: AP
14.30 Not all breast cancer is caused by mutations in the BRCA1 gene that Jolie inherited from her mother. Dr Jo Morris, senior lecturer in the School of Cancer Sciences at the University of Birmingham, has written for us explaining just what BRCA1 is and why it matters.
We all have the BRCA1 gene, she explains, but in some cases - like Jolie's - it is broken, leading to a cell that grows where it shouldn't, causing cancer.
The chance that any one person has a mutation in this BRCA1 is thankfully
rare. The prevalence of BRCA1 and BRCA2 ( BRCA1’s sister gene) mutation
carriers in the general population is estimated at between 1 in 800 and 1 in
1000 and less than 10% of breast cancer is caused by changes in these genes.
Being at high risk is related to the number and age of affected family members and whether ovarian or male breast cancer is in the family. For most women, increasing age is the greatest risk factor for breast cancer. The great majority of women with a family history of breast cancer do not fall into a high-risk category and do not develop breast cancer and the majority of women with a relative with breast cancer are not at substantially increased risk of breast cancer themselves.
In Angelina’s case the genetic change means the BRCA1 gene is not able to prevent changes in her cellular blueprint and as such she was at very high risk of breast cancer (around 80% chance by the age of 70). She has defended herself against this by a double mastectomy.
At the University of Birmingham we work on trying to identify which changes are most risky for disease development and how it is that this gene normally prevents cancer development. The gene changes are a clue to help us get to the bottom of how breast cancer develops. Of course no matter how rare the causes of disease, if it’s your own family with it its rarity in other people is no consolation. The news today is of a brave woman’s decision.
14.00 It seems the collective hope that Jolie's decision to talk about her double mastectomy will make breast cancer less taboo is already having effect: a CNN anchor has revealed on-air that she, too, has breast cancer and will be undergoing the same operation.
Zoraida Sambolin, who anchors CNN's "Early Start" morning show, talked about her condition on the show today while discussing Jolie's article.
Sambolin said wanting to be there for her children helped her make the decision, AP reported.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph's Deputy Women Editor Louisa Peacock says in the video below that Jolie's decision is uniting women against breast cancer:
13.48 Twitter also hailed Jolie's decision, both to have the operation and to make it public:
<noframe>Twitter: Tina Brown - Bravo Angelina for your brave decision & candor in sharing your story to help so many other women with similar issues <a href="http://t.co/OljSvmjHXy" target="_blank">http://t.co/OljSvmjHXy</a></noframe>
<noframe>Twitter: Nicholas Kristof - A brave and bold essay by Angelina Jolie about an excruciating medical choice she had to make: <a href="http://t.co/JWRPCespDa" target="_blank">http://t.co/JWRPCespDa</a></noframe>
And it's not just the US/UK. Over in China:
<noframe>Twitter: XQ - "Angelina Jolie double mastectomy" trending on Weibo, netizen translated Jolie's NYT article.Over 2166370 posts already.</noframe>
13.21 It's not just breast cancer campaigners who are praising Jolie today. Here is a round-up of Telegraph commentary so far:
Cristina Odone: Brava, Angelina Jolie
No room for self-pity or histrionics as she decides to cut off her
beautiful breasts. ... Here is the most coveted woman on earth (gorgeous,
bright, do-gooding and partnered by Brad Pitt to boot) saying she's removed
her breasts to improve her chances of survival...
Angelina Jolie could have concealed her operation – as so many other noteworthy figures have done in the past, she could have pretended to be the indestructible picture of health. A catalogue of big names have hidden their health conditions, lest the public despise their vulnerability.
Jolie instead has dared bring her decision out into the open. She has braved disfigurement. She has shown what really matters. This has proved her greatest role thus far.
Alice Arnold: Angelina won't be any less of a woman
[Jolie wrote that she was] fully supported by her husband Brad Pitt. It
seems strange to me that this even needs to be mentioned. I can’t believe
that any self-respecting partner would NOT support it.
This is where I get angry. The pathetic anachronism of ‘Page 3' perpetuates the fallacy that a woman is only a woman if she has two enormous breasts, thrust forward with nipples erect. It is childish, offensive and more importantly, dangerous...
So what is important, our health or our femininity?
Joanna Forest: I was 21 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and it was taboo
I can still remember the shock and fright I felt as if it was yesterday. At
that time there wasn't anybody like Angelina Jolie who I was aware of
talking about their own experiences and I felt alone...
That's why it's brilliant that Angelina Jolie is talking about it. The more people can talk about their experiences, then maybe it stops being a taboo...
To have a double mastectomy is extreme. Jolie has gone to great lengths to make sure she never gets breast cancer. She must have felt for her that this drastic operation was well worth it.
12.59 Breast cancer kills half a million women annually. Recently the Telegraph ran a five-part series of Q&A videos with our blogger Judith Potts, who has written extensively on breast cancer, and two breast cancer charities.
The full series is here, and the first part is embedded below.
Below, we've listed some other breast cancer resources in the UK. Tweet any ones I've left out to @sarahtitterton, or leave them in the comments section below:
National Health Service information on breast cancer
Breakthrough Breast Cancer
National Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline
Breast Cancer Campaign
Breast Cancer Care
Cancer Research UK (Race for Life)
12.42 Praise has also poured in for Jolie from breast cancer campaigners.
Wendy Watson, who founded the UK’s National Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline after she underwent a double mastectomy aged 37 in 1992, welcomed Jolie’s move.
Mrs Watson, from near Bakewell in Derbyshire, said: "It is excellent because it is the highest profile you can get for it... She [Jolie] probably feels that undergoing the operation is common sense but it probably does take a certain amount of courage to face it."
Katherine Woods from Breast Cancer Campaign has also spoken out:
12.30 Jolie said the series of operations began on February 2, and were completed on April 27. During that time, she travelled to the Congo with William Hague to visit refugee camps as part of a campaign to highlight the issue of mass rape in conflict areas.
Today, Mr Hague was full of praise for Jolie, telling Sky News:
She
is a courageous lady and a very professional lady. She's done a lot of work
with me in recent months.
She also came over to the G8 foreign ministers' summit in London to work with me on our initiative on preventing sexual violence in conflict and travelled with me through some difficult places in the Congo.
She gave no sign that she was undergoing such treatment and I think she's a very brave lady, not only to carry on with her work so well during such treatment, but also to write about it now and talk about it. I think that she's a brave lady and will be an inspiration to many.
11.50 Welcome to our coverage as reaction pours in to Angelina Jolie's announcement that she has undergone a preventative double mastectomy in order to lower her risk of developing breast cancer.
The 37-year-old activist and actress, whose own mother died at the age of 56 after a decade of fighting cancer, revealed her decision in a moving op-ed piece for the New York Times this morning.
Titled simply 'My Medical Choice', and bylined 'By Angelina Jolie', the piece details - in straightforward, matter-of-fact language - her three months of operations and her desire to share her experience in hopes of saving other lives.
Jolie said she made the difficult decision to have surgery after doctors told her that her faulty gene, known as BRCA1, meant she had an 87 per cent risk of developing breast cancer and a 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer.
She wrote:
Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to
minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive
double mastectomy...
I am writing about it now because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience. Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people’s hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness. 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...
I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 per cent to under 5 per cent.
I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.
Our morning story on Jolie's announcement is here.
Angelina Jolie reveals she had a double mastectomy: latest
Brad Pitt has spoken of his partner's heroism, saying: "All I want is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children".
Angelina Jolie is praised for her bravery after revealing that she “proactively” underwent a double mastectomy Photo: AP
This page will automatically update every 90 secondsOn
Off
• Angelina
Jolie: I had a double mastectomy
• Cathy Newman: Jolie showed no sign of the pain
• Alice Arnold: Jolie won't be any less of a woman
• The more Jolie talks about breast cancer, the better
• How Jolie continued her activism during treatment
• Hague hails Jolie as a 'brave lady'
• Telegraph breast cancer Q&A series
• Cathy Newman: Jolie showed no sign of the pain
• Alice Arnold: Jolie won't be any less of a woman
• The more Jolie talks about breast cancer, the better
• How Jolie continued her activism during treatment
• Hague hails Jolie as a 'brave lady'
• Telegraph breast cancer Q&A series
Latest
18.22 Brad Pitt tweeted his thanks to the Pink Lotus Breast Clinic on May 14.
The clinic, founded in 2007, is designed to offer integrated healthcare,
including prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
The clinic was founded by surgical breast specialist Dr Kristi Funk, and her
husband and business partner, Andy Funk. Past patients of Dr Funk include
singer Sheryl Cole.
The flagship centre, in Beverly Hills, was opened in 2009, and a second centre
is located in Santa Monica.
In 2012 was the first medical provider in the country to make Contrast
Enhanced Spectral Mammography, which is designed to minimise the delay
between screening and diagnosis, available to its patients.
18.15 Life for Angelina's six children remained the same even after having the surgery, according to sources speaking to People.
Things have appeared normal. The kids have kept their schedules as usual.
They have been in school during the day and have attended after-school activities like they always do.
The magazine reports that less than two weeks after the operation - on Valentine's Day - Jolie and Pitt took their four-year-old twins to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.
17.15 Jolie's decision could go beyond her hopes of raising breast cancer awareness. Dr Brooke Magnanti, who writes for Telegraph Wonder Women, said the actress's surgery will also shine a spotlight on American healthcare reforms.
Angelina's surgery has opened a whole can of worms for the US medical system.
Health care reform keeps getting pushed back but is essential for women's
quality of life. Testing for the gene and the surgeries she has had are
expensive - but rounds of chemo and radiation therapy can cost even more.
Which makes more sense economically and holistically? I hope American
politicians take this and other women's health issues seriously as a result.
You know what they say about prevention being better than cure.
16.50 Cathy Newman, who was with Jolie and the Foreign Secretary during their gruelling March trip to the DRC, has written for Telegraph's Women section on her admiration for the actress's determination.
Filming the pair of them I had not the slightest inkling of what she was
going through. We travelled for hours to various camps for people displaced
by the war, along horrendously bumpy, volcanic tracks. It was uncomfortable
for someone in peak condition, but for a woman recovering from major surgery
I can only imagine how difficult it must have been... And there was never a
word of complaint or any sign of the pain.
That she went ahead in the middle of the operations to remove her breasts, is a testimony to her passionate support for the campaign which took her to the Congo – tackling sexual violence in the war zone. And it strikes me now that what motivates her vocal interest in that issue is what also inspired her to write today's article in the New York Times: a determination to empower women.
Angelina Jolie and William Hague in the DRC in March
16.43 Jolie is not the only woman to face the threat of breast cancer while in the spotlight. Reuters have taken a look back at other woman who have faced the disease, including Kylie Minogue and Olivia Newton-John.
Sheryl Crow (diagnosed with early stage breast cancer in 2006) said at the time: "I can safely say my life has changed in every way. I feel keenly aware of how precious and fleeting life is."
16.32 Hadley Freeman over at the Guardian has written that Jolie's service to women with today's announcement extends beyond breast cancer awareness: she has also "challenged the celebrity industry to rethink its bizarre values".
Freeman continues:
For a young, beautiful actress to announce that she has had her breasts
removed is, as career moves go, somewhat akin to a handsome leading man
announcing he is gay, and that is disgusting and ridiculous on both counts.
Ultimately, she has challenged not just her own public image but also the
wearisome cliche of what makes a woman sexy, and how a woman considered to
be sexy talks about her body...
For a woman who has routinely won in those most crucial of elections – the Sexiest Woman in the World – Jolie has, really, never shown much interest in sharing herself or her body with the public. This makes her decision to do so now in the most personal of ways more powerful, but also, to a certain degree, more understandable.
15.32 Brad Pitt has spoken out, telling the Evening Standard that he finds his partner's decision "heroic".
Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie’s choice, as well as
so many others like her, absolutely heroic. I thank our medical team for
their care and focus.
All I want for is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children. This is a happy day for our family.
Angelina Jolie with her 'loving and supportive' partner Brad Pitt.
Picture: AP
14.30 Not all breast cancer is caused by mutations in the BRCA1 gene that Jolie inherited from her mother. Dr Jo Morris, senior lecturer in the School of Cancer Sciences at the University of Birmingham, has written for us explaining just what BRCA1 is and why it matters.
We all have the BRCA1 gene, she explains, but in some cases - like Jolie's - it is broken, leading to a cell that grows where it shouldn't, causing cancer.
The chance that any one person has a mutation in this BRCA1 is thankfully
rare. The prevalence of BRCA1 and BRCA2 ( BRCA1’s sister gene) mutation
carriers in the general population is estimated at between 1 in 800 and 1 in
1000 and less than 10% of breast cancer is caused by changes in these genes.
Being at high risk is related to the number and age of affected family members and whether ovarian or male breast cancer is in the family. For most women, increasing age is the greatest risk factor for breast cancer. The great majority of women with a family history of breast cancer do not fall into a high-risk category and do not develop breast cancer and the majority of women with a relative with breast cancer are not at substantially increased risk of breast cancer themselves.
In Angelina’s case the genetic change means the BRCA1 gene is not able to prevent changes in her cellular blueprint and as such she was at very high risk of breast cancer (around 80% chance by the age of 70). She has defended herself against this by a double mastectomy.
At the University of Birmingham we work on trying to identify which changes are most risky for disease development and how it is that this gene normally prevents cancer development. The gene changes are a clue to help us get to the bottom of how breast cancer develops. Of course no matter how rare the causes of disease, if it’s your own family with it its rarity in other people is no consolation. The news today is of a brave woman’s decision.
14.00 It seems the collective hope that Jolie's decision to talk about her double mastectomy will make breast cancer less taboo is already having effect: a CNN anchor has revealed on-air that she, too, has breast cancer and will be undergoing the same operation.
Zoraida Sambolin, who anchors CNN's "Early Start" morning show, talked about her condition on the show today while discussing Jolie's article.
Sambolin said wanting to be there for her children helped her make the decision, AP reported.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph's Deputy Women Editor Louisa Peacock says in the video below that Jolie's decision is uniting women against breast cancer:
13.48 Twitter also hailed Jolie's decision, both to have the operation and to make it public:
<noframe>Twitter: Tina Brown - Bravo Angelina for your brave decision & candor in sharing your story to help so many other women with similar issues <a href="http://t.co/OljSvmjHXy" target="_blank">http://t.co/OljSvmjHXy</a></noframe>
<noframe>Twitter: Nicholas Kristof - A brave and bold essay by Angelina Jolie about an excruciating medical choice she had to make: <a href="http://t.co/JWRPCespDa" target="_blank">http://t.co/JWRPCespDa</a></noframe>
And it's not just the US/UK. Over in China:
<noframe>Twitter: XQ - "Angelina Jolie double mastectomy" trending on Weibo, netizen translated Jolie's NYT article.Over 2166370 posts already.</noframe>
13.21 It's not just breast cancer campaigners who are praising Jolie today. Here is a round-up of Telegraph commentary so far:
Cristina Odone: Brava, Angelina Jolie
No room for self-pity or histrionics as she decides to cut off her
beautiful breasts. ... Here is the most coveted woman on earth (gorgeous,
bright, do-gooding and partnered by Brad Pitt to boot) saying she's removed
her breasts to improve her chances of survival...
Angelina Jolie could have concealed her operation – as so many other noteworthy figures have done in the past, she could have pretended to be the indestructible picture of health. A catalogue of big names have hidden their health conditions, lest the public despise their vulnerability.
Jolie instead has dared bring her decision out into the open. She has braved disfigurement. She has shown what really matters. This has proved her greatest role thus far.
Alice Arnold: Angelina won't be any less of a woman
[Jolie wrote that she was] fully supported by her husband Brad Pitt. It
seems strange to me that this even needs to be mentioned. I can’t believe
that any self-respecting partner would NOT support it.
This is where I get angry. The pathetic anachronism of ‘Page 3' perpetuates the fallacy that a woman is only a woman if she has two enormous breasts, thrust forward with nipples erect. It is childish, offensive and more importantly, dangerous...
So what is important, our health or our femininity?
Joanna Forest: I was 21 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and it was taboo
I can still remember the shock and fright I felt as if it was yesterday. At
that time there wasn't anybody like Angelina Jolie who I was aware of
talking about their own experiences and I felt alone...
That's why it's brilliant that Angelina Jolie is talking about it. The more people can talk about their experiences, then maybe it stops being a taboo...
To have a double mastectomy is extreme. Jolie has gone to great lengths to make sure she never gets breast cancer. She must have felt for her that this drastic operation was well worth it.
12.59 Breast cancer kills half a million women annually. Recently the Telegraph ran a five-part series of Q&A videos with our blogger Judith Potts, who has written extensively on breast cancer, and two breast cancer charities.
The full series is here, and the first part is embedded below.
Below, we've listed some other breast cancer resources in the UK. Tweet any ones I've left out to @sarahtitterton, or leave them in the comments section below:
National Health Service information on breast cancer
Breakthrough Breast Cancer
National Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline
Breast Cancer Campaign
Breast Cancer Care
Cancer Research UK (Race for Life)
12.42 Praise has also poured in for Jolie from breast cancer campaigners.
Wendy Watson, who founded the UK’s National Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline after she underwent a double mastectomy aged 37 in 1992, welcomed Jolie’s move.
Mrs Watson, from near Bakewell in Derbyshire, said: "It is excellent because it is the highest profile you can get for it... She [Jolie] probably feels that undergoing the operation is common sense but it probably does take a certain amount of courage to face it."
Katherine Woods from Breast Cancer Campaign has also spoken out:
12.30 Jolie said the series of operations began on February 2, and were completed on April 27. During that time, she travelled to the Congo with William Hague to visit refugee camps as part of a campaign to highlight the issue of mass rape in conflict areas.
Today, Mr Hague was full of praise for Jolie, telling Sky News:
She
is a courageous lady and a very professional lady. She's done a lot of work
with me in recent months.
She also came over to the G8 foreign ministers' summit in London to work with me on our initiative on preventing sexual violence in conflict and travelled with me through some difficult places in the Congo.
She gave no sign that she was undergoing such treatment and I think she's a very brave lady, not only to carry on with her work so well during such treatment, but also to write about it now and talk about it. I think that she's a brave lady and will be an inspiration to many.
11.50 Welcome to our coverage as reaction pours in to Angelina Jolie's announcement that she has undergone a preventative double mastectomy in order to lower her risk of developing breast cancer.
The 37-year-old activist and actress, whose own mother died at the age of 56 after a decade of fighting cancer, revealed her decision in a moving op-ed piece for the New York Times this morning.
Titled simply 'My Medical Choice', and bylined 'By Angelina Jolie', the piece details - in straightforward, matter-of-fact language - her three months of operations and her desire to share her experience in hopes of saving other lives.
Jolie said she made the difficult decision to have surgery after doctors told her that her faulty gene, known as BRCA1, meant she had an 87 per cent risk of developing breast cancer and a 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer.
She wrote:
Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to
minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive
double mastectomy...
I am writing about it now because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience. Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people’s hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness. 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...
I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 per cent to under 5 per cent.
I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.
Our morning story on Jolie's announcement is here.
18.15 Life for Angelina's six children remained the same even after having the surgery, according to sources speaking to People.
Things have appeared normal. The kids have kept their schedules as usual.
They have been in school during the day and have attended after-school activities like they always do.
The magazine reports that less than two weeks after the operation - on Valentine's Day - Jolie and Pitt took their four-year-old twins to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.
17.15 Jolie's decision could go beyond her hopes of raising breast cancer awareness. Dr Brooke Magnanti, who writes for Telegraph Wonder Women, said the actress's surgery will also shine a spotlight on American healthcare reforms.
Angelina's surgery has opened a whole can of worms for the US medical system.
Health care reform keeps getting pushed back but is essential for women's
quality of life. Testing for the gene and the surgeries she has had are
expensive - but rounds of chemo and radiation therapy can cost even more.
Which makes more sense economically and holistically? I hope American
politicians take this and other women's health issues seriously as a result.
You know what they say about prevention being better than cure.
16.50 Cathy Newman, who was with Jolie and the Foreign Secretary during their gruelling March trip to the DRC, has written for Telegraph's Women section on her admiration for the actress's determination.
Filming the pair of them I had not the slightest inkling of what she was
going through. We travelled for hours to various camps for people displaced
by the war, along horrendously bumpy, volcanic tracks. It was uncomfortable
for someone in peak condition, but for a woman recovering from major surgery
I can only imagine how difficult it must have been... And there was never a
word of complaint or any sign of the pain.
That she went ahead in the middle of the operations to remove her breasts, is a testimony to her passionate support for the campaign which took her to the Congo – tackling sexual violence in the war zone. And it strikes me now that what motivates her vocal interest in that issue is what also inspired her to write today's article in the New York Times: a determination to empower women.
Angelina Jolie and William Hague in the DRC in March
16.43 Jolie is not the only woman to face the threat of breast cancer while in the spotlight. Reuters have taken a look back at other woman who have faced the disease, including Kylie Minogue and Olivia Newton-John.
Sheryl Crow (diagnosed with early stage breast cancer in 2006) said at the time: "I can safely say my life has changed in every way. I feel keenly aware of how precious and fleeting life is."
16.32 Hadley Freeman over at the Guardian has written that Jolie's service to women with today's announcement extends beyond breast cancer awareness: she has also "challenged the celebrity industry to rethink its bizarre values".
Freeman continues:
For a young, beautiful actress to announce that she has had her breasts
removed is, as career moves go, somewhat akin to a handsome leading man
announcing he is gay, and that is disgusting and ridiculous on both counts.
Ultimately, she has challenged not just her own public image but also the
wearisome cliche of what makes a woman sexy, and how a woman considered to
be sexy talks about her body...
For a woman who has routinely won in those most crucial of elections – the Sexiest Woman in the World – Jolie has, really, never shown much interest in sharing herself or her body with the public. This makes her decision to do so now in the most personal of ways more powerful, but also, to a certain degree, more understandable.
15.32 Brad Pitt has spoken out, telling the Evening Standard that he finds his partner's decision "heroic".
Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie’s choice, as well as
so many others like her, absolutely heroic. I thank our medical team for
their care and focus.
All I want for is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children. This is a happy day for our family.
Angelina Jolie with her 'loving and supportive' partner Brad Pitt.
Picture: AP
14.30 Not all breast cancer is caused by mutations in the BRCA1 gene that Jolie inherited from her mother. Dr Jo Morris, senior lecturer in the School of Cancer Sciences at the University of Birmingham, has written for us explaining just what BRCA1 is and why it matters.
We all have the BRCA1 gene, she explains, but in some cases - like Jolie's - it is broken, leading to a cell that grows where it shouldn't, causing cancer.
The chance that any one person has a mutation in this BRCA1 is thankfully
rare. The prevalence of BRCA1 and BRCA2 ( BRCA1’s sister gene) mutation
carriers in the general population is estimated at between 1 in 800 and 1 in
1000 and less than 10% of breast cancer is caused by changes in these genes.
Being at high risk is related to the number and age of affected family members and whether ovarian or male breast cancer is in the family. For most women, increasing age is the greatest risk factor for breast cancer. The great majority of women with a family history of breast cancer do not fall into a high-risk category and do not develop breast cancer and the majority of women with a relative with breast cancer are not at substantially increased risk of breast cancer themselves.
In Angelina’s case the genetic change means the BRCA1 gene is not able to prevent changes in her cellular blueprint and as such she was at very high risk of breast cancer (around 80% chance by the age of 70). She has defended herself against this by a double mastectomy.
At the University of Birmingham we work on trying to identify which changes are most risky for disease development and how it is that this gene normally prevents cancer development. The gene changes are a clue to help us get to the bottom of how breast cancer develops. Of course no matter how rare the causes of disease, if it’s your own family with it its rarity in other people is no consolation. The news today is of a brave woman’s decision.
14.00 It seems the collective hope that Jolie's decision to talk about her double mastectomy will make breast cancer less taboo is already having effect: a CNN anchor has revealed on-air that she, too, has breast cancer and will be undergoing the same operation.
Zoraida Sambolin, who anchors CNN's "Early Start" morning show, talked about her condition on the show today while discussing Jolie's article.
Sambolin said wanting to be there for her children helped her make the decision, AP reported.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph's Deputy Women Editor Louisa Peacock says in the video below that Jolie's decision is uniting women against breast cancer:
13.48 Twitter also hailed Jolie's decision, both to have the operation and to make it public:
<noframe>Twitter: Tina Brown - Bravo Angelina for your brave decision & candor in sharing your story to help so many other women with similar issues <a href="http://t.co/OljSvmjHXy" target="_blank">http://t.co/OljSvmjHXy</a></noframe>
<noframe>Twitter: Nicholas Kristof - A brave and bold essay by Angelina Jolie about an excruciating medical choice she had to make: <a href="http://t.co/JWRPCespDa" target="_blank">http://t.co/JWRPCespDa</a></noframe>
And it's not just the US/UK. Over in China:
<noframe>Twitter: XQ - "Angelina Jolie double mastectomy" trending on Weibo, netizen translated Jolie's NYT article.Over 2166370 posts already.</noframe>
13.21 It's not just breast cancer campaigners who are praising Jolie today. Here is a round-up of Telegraph commentary so far:
Cristina Odone: Brava, Angelina Jolie
No room for self-pity or histrionics as she decides to cut off her
beautiful breasts. ... Here is the most coveted woman on earth (gorgeous,
bright, do-gooding and partnered by Brad Pitt to boot) saying she's removed
her breasts to improve her chances of survival...
Angelina Jolie could have concealed her operation – as so many other noteworthy figures have done in the past, she could have pretended to be the indestructible picture of health. A catalogue of big names have hidden their health conditions, lest the public despise their vulnerability.
Jolie instead has dared bring her decision out into the open. She has braved disfigurement. She has shown what really matters. This has proved her greatest role thus far.
Alice Arnold: Angelina won't be any less of a woman
[Jolie wrote that she was] fully supported by her husband Brad Pitt. It
seems strange to me that this even needs to be mentioned. I can’t believe
that any self-respecting partner would NOT support it.
This is where I get angry. The pathetic anachronism of ‘Page 3' perpetuates the fallacy that a woman is only a woman if she has two enormous breasts, thrust forward with nipples erect. It is childish, offensive and more importantly, dangerous...
So what is important, our health or our femininity?
Joanna Forest: I was 21 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and it was taboo
I can still remember the shock and fright I felt as if it was yesterday. At
that time there wasn't anybody like Angelina Jolie who I was aware of
talking about their own experiences and I felt alone...
That's why it's brilliant that Angelina Jolie is talking about it. The more people can talk about their experiences, then maybe it stops being a taboo...
To have a double mastectomy is extreme. Jolie has gone to great lengths to make sure she never gets breast cancer. She must have felt for her that this drastic operation was well worth it.
12.59 Breast cancer kills half a million women annually. Recently the Telegraph ran a five-part series of Q&A videos with our blogger Judith Potts, who has written extensively on breast cancer, and two breast cancer charities.
The full series is here, and the first part is embedded below.
Below, we've listed some other breast cancer resources in the UK. Tweet any ones I've left out to @sarahtitterton, or leave them in the comments section below:
National Health Service information on breast cancer
Breakthrough Breast Cancer
National Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline
Breast Cancer Campaign
Breast Cancer Care
Cancer Research UK (Race for Life)
12.42 Praise has also poured in for Jolie from breast cancer campaigners.
Wendy Watson, who founded the UK’s National Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline after she underwent a double mastectomy aged 37 in 1992, welcomed Jolie’s move.
Mrs Watson, from near Bakewell in Derbyshire, said: "It is excellent because it is the highest profile you can get for it... She [Jolie] probably feels that undergoing the operation is common sense but it probably does take a certain amount of courage to face it."
Katherine Woods from Breast Cancer Campaign has also spoken out:
12.30 Jolie said the series of operations began on February 2, and were completed on April 27. During that time, she travelled to the Congo with William Hague to visit refugee camps as part of a campaign to highlight the issue of mass rape in conflict areas.
Today, Mr Hague was full of praise for Jolie, telling Sky News:
She
is a courageous lady and a very professional lady. She's done a lot of work
with me in recent months.
She also came over to the G8 foreign ministers' summit in London to work with me on our initiative on preventing sexual violence in conflict and travelled with me through some difficult places in the Congo.
She gave no sign that she was undergoing such treatment and I think she's a very brave lady, not only to carry on with her work so well during such treatment, but also to write about it now and talk about it. I think that she's a brave lady and will be an inspiration to many.
11.50 Welcome to our coverage as reaction pours in to Angelina Jolie's announcement that she has undergone a preventative double mastectomy in order to lower her risk of developing breast cancer.
The 37-year-old activist and actress, whose own mother died at the age of 56 after a decade of fighting cancer, revealed her decision in a moving op-ed piece for the New York Times this morning.
Titled simply 'My Medical Choice', and bylined 'By Angelina Jolie', the piece details - in straightforward, matter-of-fact language - her three months of operations and her desire to share her experience in hopes of saving other lives.
Jolie said she made the difficult decision to have surgery after doctors told her that her faulty gene, known as BRCA1, meant she had an 87 per cent risk of developing breast cancer and a 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer.
She wrote:
Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to
minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive
double mastectomy...
I am writing about it now because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience. Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people’s hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness. 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...
I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 per cent to under 5 per cent.
I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.
Our morning story on Jolie's announcement is here.
end quote from:
