Eli’s Family History of Breast Cancer: Taking Control

Talking about her family history of breast cancer was something Eli’s family didn’t do. When she learned about her own breast cancer risk, she knew it was time to change that.

Audio Descriptive Text

• Super comes up with “Eli On taking control of your family history”
• Eli is shown sitting and being interviewed throughout the video.
• A doctor’s hands are shown gesticulating during implied discussion.
• Old footage of the Dominican Republic is shown.
• Eli’s family photos are shown.
• A photo of Eli and her partner is shown.
• A photo of Eli and her child is shown.
• Super comes up with “It’s Time to Talk About Breast Cancer Risk”
• The last screen shows “BRING YOUR BRAVE” with the logos for the National Association for Chronic Disease Directors and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and directs viewers to visit: cdc.gov/bringyourbrave

Script

[Eli] I was 24-years-old when the genetic counselor said, “Well I’m very sorry to tell you this but you have the BRCA1 mutation.” She told me what my chances were of getting breast and ovarian cancer. And I felt like, okay, well, it’s better to understand what your family history is telling you. So I’m part of a very big family that comes from the Dominican Republic. And when I was growing up cancer and other health issues went largely unspoken about. There was no sort of discussion about family members having hereditary breast cancer or any type of cancer. And I was like, that concerns me. I felt like I needed to get tested. So as soon as I found out that I had the genetic mutation I told family members that I was planning on having a preventative, double mastectomy and that was shocking to people. One of my aunts is like, that’s going to take away all of your womanhood and thought that I should just have faith that I wouldn’t, you know, get breast cancer. But I kind of decided that I was going to do this. I was 34-years-old when I got my surgeries. And thankfully I’ve never been diagnosed with breast cancer or any type of cancer, but I think it’s important to to tell my story, to raise that sort of awareness within the Latinx community and teach people about this, and to also live life in a more urgent way.