Bridges Girl

A few of my online friends are working on an Oprah proposal.  Here is my letter to the Harpo people. 

I was just 27 years old when I made the decision to remove my ovaries and uterus and throw myself into menopause in my 20’s.  Just last year, I removed my healthy breasts at 32 to avoid breast cancer.  As a young woman, most people would see this as either extreme or courageous.  For me, it was neither.  I am BRCA positive and it was what I needed to do to keep myself here for my daughter as long as I could.  My groups of friends that are also BRCA positive that I have met through the internet have given me strength and advice and been a mother figure to me every step of the way.  Losing my mom to breast cancer when I was only 24 has impacted these decisions but has not made them easy.  But my mom left me one final gift, the knowledge and ability to change my fate from hers, the foresight to protect myself and take that hard road of surgery without being sick. 

In making my decision to remove my healthy breasts, I also took a radical approach to dealing with the stress and took my story public.  I was featured in the local newspaper multiple times and was shocked after surgery to see that my picture covered the front page.  The first of a series of articles can be found here.  http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2008/oct/25/the-decision-of-her-lifetime/  I discovered support from not only my friends and family, but my community as a whole.  Women would say to me, I felt, if you can have a mastectomy, I can do a little mammogram.  It was an amazing journey and one that I would love to continue to share with your viewers.

I received a note from two of these online friends regarding a request to your show for a BRCA story.  I feel this would raise awareness and be an excellent source of information for people that could be high risk.  The current changes to the Mammogram guidelines makes this story also a topical subject.  Please consider having a show on the subject and feel free to contact me for any additional information.

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