Angelina Jolie made a courageous, desperate choice to prolong her life and women all over the world admire her for it. My beloved mother died of breast cancer at 36 so I took the test not knowing what I would do if it came back positive for the gene. Luckily in my case it didn't. Mom didn't have the gene but she got breast cancer anyway due to stress and other causes. That set my mind at ease and I was able to breathe a big sign of relief. It took courage for me to do the test knowing that if I was found to be positive for the gene, my peace of mind would be permanently destroyed. Would I have done what Angelina did? I really don't know. I took the test not knowing and only certain that I had to find out no matter what. I hate mutilation of any kind, you see? And I still view this barbaric operation as mutilation. Angelina also has to undergo a complete hysterectomy now as well, to make sure she doesn't get ovarian cancer like her mother. She seems to be at peace with her choice and we all wish her a long and happy life. Yet cancer is such a capricious and insidious disease, she might have never gotten cancer to begin with, even with her 85% risk. I had a friend who had no cancer in the family at all and shortly about boasting to me about it, she developed a very aggressive type of breast cancer. She doesn't have the gene, her children don't have the gene, and yet she got it anyway. I know that Angelina's choice is going to send thousands if not millions of women to the surgeons all over the world, but I've read that cancer could still grow in the wall of the chest, so one has to be fatalistic about this dreadful disease and not get too crazy. That said, I still admire her enormously for her bravery in confronting this issue head on and for her willingness to share it with us. That couldn't have been easy for such a beautiful woman, who is also one of our greatest sex symbols. Yet she has proven time and time again, that she's also a woman of substance. I hope she saves many lives with her choice and I hope she lives a long life. I've always admired her as an actress and as a person, but perhaps never more than now.
