EastEnders actress Kara Tointon has revealed she has had a double mastectomy.
The 41-year-old – who lost her mum to ovarian cancer in 2019 – spoke about her decision to have the operation on Instagram.
Tointon told her 150,000 followers she decided to have the surgery after discovering she is a carrier of the BRCA1 gene, which increases the chance of breast cancer.
The former Strictly Come Dancing winner has also had her fallopian tubes removed, as she is at greater risk of ovarian cancer.
"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,” she said in the video, which was a collaboration post with leading gynaecological cancer charity The Eve Appeal.
"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."
She continued: "But it was put to us, we took the test and it was confirmed that my mum and I both carried the gene."
Mum-of-two Tointon explained that she had the surgeries after she felt her family was “complete”.
"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,” she continued.
"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.”
She added: "We are finding out more and more about personal genetics and most people believe in surveillance, but after doing this for a couple of years, having MRIs, waiting for biopsy, we decided that this was the right decision for me and my family.”
Tointon said the decision was tough, but that ultimately she was “very glad” to have made the call.
She ended the video by giving a shoutout to her surgeons, Dr Adam Rosenthal and Dr Gerard Cuie, and the actress also pledged to raise more awareness about gynaecological cancers.
"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,” she said.
