EastEnders actress, Kara Tointon, who played Dawn Swann in the soap, underwent a double mastectomy and had both her fallopian tubes removed after losing her mum to cancer
EastEnders star, Kara Tointon, has given a health update after bravely revealing she’d undergone a double mastectomy. The mum-of-two, 42, made the decision to have the operation after testing positive for the deadly BRCA mutation genes after sadly losing her mum, Carol, to ovarian cancer in 2019.
Kara, who has also had her fallopian tubes removed, said it was “right decision for me and my family” after revealing she’d had her mastectomy. And she’s now given an update on her health as she says she feels grateful to have been given a “lucky shot”. Speaking today on Good Morning Britain, she said: “We’re living in a time where we’re so lucky to become aware of personal genetics, and there’s a choice in that, sometimes that can be a daunting thing we wish we didn’t know about.”
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After losing her mum and aunt, and dealing with “generational trauma” among the women in her family, Kara revealed that her mum “always believed” she would die of cancer.
She continued: “For me to be given the opportunity to make the choice and see what it’s done to my family, it was a no-brainer for me,” she added.
“I’ve had a lucky shot. Everyone has the BRCA gene, but some people have the gene that’s faulty, and it’s a 50 percent chance that it is passed down.”
Revealing that her sister, Hollyoaks star, Hannah Tointon, hasn’t got the deadly BRCA mutation genes, she explained: “My sister hasn’t got it, but I have, my sister was so upset she didn’t have it… she wanted us to go through it together, but we have gone through it together, because she held my hand every step of the way.
Kara revealed that the “hardest part of the process” was making the initial call to schedule the first appointment.
“I couldn’t talk about it at the time because it is a big deal I suppose,” she admitted.
Offering advice to viewers, she added: “Don’t be scared, facing things actually is empowering.”
Kara revealed she’d had her mastectomy in May last year. Announcing that she had undergone the major operation and had her fallopian tubes removed as a preventative measure, she bravely told her followers on Instagram: “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.”
Source: Mirror
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