After Sarah was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in 2020, genetic testing revealed that she carried an inherited BRCA1 mutation, which is linked to a significantly increased risk of several cancers.
SARAH
The exact words from my oncologist was, knowledge is power. We know exactly how your
cancer likely started.
I was diagnosed with triple-negative invasive ductal carcinoma and a BRCA1-positive gene.
It's on my dad's side. That led to trying to link family and that led to us actually getting on a
group call together.
We didn't know each other at all growing up. So having to go to somebody, you arguably are
kind of just meeting and forming a relationship for the first time with that sort of jarring news,
was difficult.
MABLE
I was shattered and I felt pretty alone. Over time, that's when I started feeling more accepting of
it knowing that this is good news because I know in advance and I have options.
NORELY
I am at a point in my life where I'm actually thinking about family planning, like IVF options. Even
going as far as looking at my eggs and being able to remove the gene if I wanted to. That's the
only thing you can do is just do what you can to be as proactive as possible.
MABLE
It does feel like there’s something looking out for you, it, like, could be the universe but, it is
Sarah.That’s who was looking out for us. And I think more people should do that. If you know
that you have it, you should encourage other people to get tested.
SARAH
You now fundamentally are changed forever. And I think as much as we can at least normalize
conversations or as much as we can all advocate continually to either get these tests or share
their stories, it's only going to help all future generations.