Today presenter Jill Martin has spoken out in an emotional interview about her breast cancer battle after a genetic test ‘saved her life.’
Just three weeks ago, the TV personality was diagnosed with the potentially fatal disease after she did an at-home saliva test to discover if she had BRCA genes, she wrote in a first-person essay for Today.
A woman who has a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene has an up to seven in 10 chance of having breast cancer by the age of 80, according to the American Cancer Society.
Jill is one of those women – even though her mother tested negative – but she soon learned her father was positive.
Today presenter Jill Martin has spoken out in an emotional interview about her breast cancer battle after a genetic test ‘saved her life’
She sat down on the breakfast show with Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, alongside her doctor, Dr. Elisa Port
Unfortunately the 47-year-old presenter is no stranger to breast cancer – her grandmother died of the disease and her mother had a double mastectomy after she was found to have ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).
DCIS ‘means the cells that line the milk ducts of the breast have become cancer, but they have not spread into surrounding breast tissue,’ the American Cancer Society explains, and if left untreated it can turn into the ‘invasive’ disease.
Despite being ‘vigilant’ with her screenings and her mammogram being ‘clear’ in January, Jill said her doctor’s suggestion to get genetic testing ‘saved [her] life.’
‘As it turns out, my father is BRCA2 positive, too. And because of those positive tests, which I will be forever grateful we took, my father will get screened and stay vigilant about breast, prostate and pancreatic cancer, which he now knows he’s at a higher risk for,’ she wrote.
‘And because of that test, I had a sonogram and an MRI and it turns out… I have breast cancer.’
The Today lifestyle contributor will be having her first surgery, a double mastectomy, this week before getting a reconstruction.
And ‘a few months’ after this, Jill said she would undergo a preventative surgery that would see her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed.
She said she wanted to share her experience at this time because she couldn’t go through all the surgeries and recovery ‘without shouting from the rooftops telling everyone to check with their doctors to see if genetic testing is appropriate.’
The 47-year-old Today lifestyle contributor is no stranger to breast cancer. Her grandmother (front left) died of the disease and her mother (right with herself and her father) had a double mastectomy
Jill will also undergo a double mastectomy this week as well as having her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed months later
Savannah and Jill hug on the show. Jill said the ‘most sad’ she felt was seeing her parents’ reaction to seeing her go through this health battle
Jill married her longtime partner, Erik Brooks, in September 2022 at a wedding ceremony at the New York Public Library
In an emotional interview on the Today show, a tearful Jill said what she was ‘most sad about was watching my parents watching me go through this.’
‘The surgery itself I feel so safe with [Dr. Elisa Port] and I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I know that while I’m healing and while I’m resting and while I prep for the second surgery, everyone could go out and get their genetic testing and their families can know,’ she added.
‘Because my dad is such a private person but he said, “Other families shouldn’t have to go through this.” If I had known I was positive, I would have gotten the preventative surgery, and then I wouldn’t have to be dealing with cancer.’
Dr. Elisa Port, who is Mount Sinai Hospital’s chief breast surgeon, explained that preventative surgery ‘really reduce a woman’s risk of getting her breast cancer to about one per cent.’
Jill married her longtime partner, Erik Brooks, in September 2022 at a wedding ceremony at the New York Public Library.