Imagine sitting across from a crystal ball and fortune teller, receiving a prediction about your future. This may be difficult based on your ideas about crystal balls and fortune tellers, but suspend your disbelief for a moment, because you must now imagine that the crystal ball is your DNA – complete with a mutation that predisposes you to breast, ovarian, prostate and/or colon cancer (depending on your gender) – and the fortune teller is your doctor.

In her early 40s, Hadassa Lefkowitz found herself in this very situation. Her grandmother, mother and aunt had developed breast cancer, so Hadassa decided to put her $600 preventive benefit towards genetic testing to find out if she was a carrier of the BRCA2 gene that has been linked to it. And she discovered that she was.

But where some might feel hopeless, helpless and defeated by this revelation (and may avoid testings and screenings due to fear of such results), Hadassa felt empowered by this knowledge. "Ignorance is never bliss... [There are] too many choices to feel helpless," she asserted. Helplessness, she believes, occurs when people do not know their options or lack the data required to make informed decisions.

Having the facts one needs, however, does not mean informed decisions are any easier to make. Armed with the knowledge of being BRCA2-positive, Hadassa received a full range of options for how she might proceed – all with their own sets of consequences. Some doctors suggested she do nothing, because the BRCA2 mutation does not absolutely guarantee cancer will develop. Some suggested proactive drug therapies. Others suggested partial or complete preventive surgeries. Based on her personal priorities and goals for the future, Hadassa made her choice; "Best decision I ever made!" she confided, displaying a smile that reflected how true she felt this comment to be in her heart.

Hadassa believes that being in control of one's health is "a matter of education," and she is passionate about the preventive benefit because of the knowledge it gave her. "[I am] hugely grateful to the Trust," she said, "because my life could be drastically different." In many ways, though, Hadassa's life is drastically different... for the better. She feels she received the blessings of the "scare" serious illness presents without the actual illness; she lives for the day and packs each one with teaching, family time, and new community involvements.

Though she embraces the present, Hadassa imagines a different future than her genes may have granted her, which is why she chose the route she felt would best guarantee her the future she wants. The Trust hopes you receive that healthy future, Hadassa, and we are glad to have helped you on your journey toward it.

Raegen Pietrucha
Contributor

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