In an op-ed on the New York Times the 37 year old award winning actress, wrote that she underwent the surgery because of her six kids, and watching mother die from breast cancer.
“My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.”
“They have asked if the same could happen to me.”
Doctors told Jolie that she had an 87% chance of getting the deadly disease after the BRCA1 gene that causes breast cancer was found in her system.
Jolie hopes that by making this information public, she would be able to help other women facing the same decision.
“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 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.”
