Kara Tointon underwent double mastectomy and removal of her fallopian tubes
In an emotional Instagram video, actress Kara Tointon has revealed she underwent a double mastectomy and removal of her fallopian tubes.
Kara Tointon underwent a double mastectomy and removal of her fallopian tubes.
The 41-year-old TV actress, known for her roles in ‘EastEnders’ and for winning ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ in 2010, shared her experience in a video posted on Instagram in collaboration with the gynaecological cancer charity The Eve Appeal after discovering she carries the BRCA1 gene mutation, which significantly increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
She explained she took a genetic test in 2018 during her mother Carol's treatment for ovarian cancer, which confirmed both she and her mother carried the BRCA1 gene.
Kara, whose mother passed away in 2019, said in an emotional post about her private ordeal: “I am sharing with you my journey with the BRCA1 gene.
“It’s about understanding, choices, and taking control. Hope this helps someone out there.
“You may have heard of the BRCA genes, type 1 and 2, and as a carrier it means that I am at a greater risk of both breast and ovarian cancer.
“Back in 2018 when my mum was undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer, I was asked to take a genetics test.
“There is a history of both cancers in my family but for various reasons including generational trauma of which I'll talk more about another time, we hadn't looked into it until that point.
“But it was put to us, we took the test and it was confirmed that my mum and I both carried the gene.”
Mother-of-two Kara, who wore grey hoodie in her clip, added her family was at the front of her mind when making her decision.
She added: "I was pregnant with my first child at the time, knew I wanted more children if possible so over the next couple of years I was invited to various meetings by the NHS to really become informed and to understand all my options.
"Last year, having had my second son in 2021 and deciding that our family was complete, I underwent two preventative surgeries.
"The first, a double mastectomy and the second, a two-part protector study, a trial.
"They believe that ovarian cancer begins in the Fallopian tubes so by removing them first checking out you can remove the ovaries later."
Adding she was glad she went through her ordeal, she said: “It wasn’t an easy decision, but one I am very glad that I made.
“I can now with hindsight talk about it properly.
“I’d like to thank my surgeons Dr Adam Rosenthal and Dr Gerard Cuie, I can’t thank them enough.
“I wanted to talk about it because hearing other people's experience, helped so much and knowledge is power, communication is key, getting to know our bodies, our cycles is only a good thing, but I’ll be talking about this a lot more.”
