Jill Martin
“TODAY” contributor Jill Martin recently shared that, just a few weeks ago, she learned she has breast cancer.
“This feels like an out-of-body experience,” Martin said on Monday. “It feels like someone else telling this story. … It’s happened really fast.” This week, she will undergo a double mastectomy, and a more in-depth treatment plan will follow. But she feels confident she’s in good hands with her doctors, Martin, 47, told “TODAY” co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb.
In an essay she wrote for TODAY.com ahead of revealing the news on air, Martin shared that she has a higher risk for breast cancer because both her mom and grandmother had it. Her mom was diagnosed in her late 40s, underwent a double mastectomy and is “healthy” now, she said. Her grandmother died of breast cancer.
Because of Martin’s family history of cancer, she said she was a candidate to undergo genetic testing to assess her risk. So, earlier this year, she underwent testing to see if she had any mutations to her BRCA genes, which are important in preventing cancer.
BRCA mutations can increase a person’s risk of developing certain types of cancer, especially breast, ovarian and prostate cancers. Martin’s mom had been tested for BRCA mutations and was negative. But Jill’s doctor encouraged her to take a genetic test to make sure she was in the clear, too. That’s when she learned some shocking news.
After the test, Martin underwent a sonogram and an MRI, and doctors discovered that she had breast cancer.
Just a few months prior, in January, Martin had gotten her regular mammogram, which didn’t find anything. “That (BRCA) test saved my life,” Jill said. “Had I not gotten the test, I wouldn’t have gotten the scans, and we would be telling a very different story.”
While Martin shared her story, sometimes through tears, she also expressed plenty of hope. “I feel devastated and sad and scared, but I feel empowered, strong,” she said. “I have the best doctors and my family, and I’ve got this.”
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