Twenty-five year old Elise Worthington has spoken out about her decision to have a double mastectomy after learning she has the BRCA1 gene which has been passed down through three generations of her family.
Elise, a journalist for ABC News, decided to have the preventive surgery after both her great grandmother and grandmother were diagnosed with breast cancer and her mother with ovarian cancer.
ABC’s 7:30 Report aired Elise’s story this week and a short clip can be viewed below. The Brisbane woman spoke of her decision to have the surgery and her worry for her mother who is currently battling cancer.
“Mum’s just told me her cancer has returned that she was in remission from. I knew it was going to come back at some point,” Elise said.
“It’s been five months since she stopped chemo. I just hoped she wouldn’t have to go through it again so soon. I’ll help her get through it and I’m going to get through it and she’s going to be the last woman in this family to get sick from this gene and I’m going to be fine”.
Part of the reason Elise filmed her experience was to encourage others to talk about gene mutations, such as the BRCA1 gene, in the hope that people would be more aware of the subject.
“If I had seen something like this with my mum maybe we could have spoken about our family history more and maybe she would have been tested and maybe she wouldn’t be in the situation she’s in now,” Elise said.
