‘Today’ Show Contributor Jill Martin Opens Up About Breast Cancer Diagnosis
17.07.2023 - 17:37
/ etcanada.com
“Today” show correspondent Jill Martin is speaking out about her breast cancer diagnosis.
The 47-year-old was diagnosed shortly after testing positive for the BRCA gene, she revealed.
Martin shared in a “Today” piece, “I remember saying to myself, ‘My life is never going to be the same.’ It was the day I was told I had breast cancer.
“I had always feared this day would come, but I never really thought it would. Just three weeks before, in between work calls, I had taken an at-home saliva test by a genetic testing company and mailed it in. Honestly, I had forgotten I even did it.
“My grandmother passed away from breast cancer. And my beautiful mother — who is healthy now — had a double mastectomy in her late 40s after being diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ, often referred to as stage 0 breast cancer. If left untreated, DCIS can turn into invasive cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.”
Martin — who also spoke about the diagnosis on Monday’s “Today” — continued, “After her surgery, she tested negative for mutations in her BRCA genes, and she is still negative. So I assumed I didn’t need to test for that, but was vigilant on keeping up with my screenings. And I had wrongly thought, like so many other friends I have since spoken to about this, that breast cancer was mostly something only women needed to monitor.
“I was wrong. Very. If you are not familiar with this test, the BRCA1 and 2 genes, which I now know are inherited from your mother and father, are tumour suppressing genes that are important for fighting cancer. Mutations to these genes can greatly increase your risk of developing certain types of cancer, especially breast, ovarian and prostate cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control