Lexie’s Family History of Breast Cancer: Learning from the Past

Lexie was 11 years old when she lost her mom to breast cancer. Now, she knows she has an opportunity that her mom didn’t have – to take steps to manage her breast cancer risk.

Audio Descriptive Text

• Super comes up with “Lexie On learning from the past”
• Clips of Lexie sitting and being interviewed are shown throughout the video.
• Photos from Lexie’s bat mitzvah are shown.
• Photos from Lexie’s community service project are shown.
• Lexie’s family photos are shown.
• Photos of Lexie are shown.
• More family photos are shown.
• A photo of Lexie’s mom 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

[Lexie] When I was 13 years old, I had a Bat Mitzvah, which is sort of a coming of age ceremony for Jewish kids. And part of that is doing a community service project. I decided to hold a 5k walk and all the proceeds from that would be donated to breast cancer awareness and research and prevention. So I was four years old, I think, when my mom was first diagnosed with breast cancer. My mom found out after she was first diagnosed that she carried the BRCA1 gene. So it was the kind of thing that if she had known she could have been tested and like taken preventative steps, but sadly just had no idea. And so I was 11 years old when she passed away. It was tough to say the least. And as I got older, I think that’s when it sort of sunk in for me what it meant that my mom was a carrier of the BRCA1 gene. And it might give me a very high chance of breast cancer and a very high chance of ovarian cancer. And so I was forced to reckon with things that teenagers generally don’t have to, which is like, am I going to get cancer in 20 years? But I am at a place where like I have conversations with my doctor just about what is the right action steps going forward. So whenever I graduate college, I will get genetic testing. And if I do happen to have the gene, then my doctors are sort of clued in. My family is a great support system. And I think knowing all that definitely gives me a lot of power and definitely takes away from the fear. But sadly, my mom just really didn’t have that opportunity.