Rachelle and Corinne Gebert are sisters. They both have the BRCA2 gene. But only one of them has the chance to stop the disease before it starts.
Today, they’re wearing pink lipstick to encourage families like theirs to have the conversation about family health history they wished they had had earlier.
The Melbourne sisters first discovered they carry the BRCA2 gene mutation, which puts them at a high risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer after finding the gene was prevalent on their father’s side.
“I never met my paternal grandmother, but I knew she died of Breast Cancer at 40 years old,” Corinne says.
“But I thought my risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer was low as the advice I was given was ‘don’t worry about it, it’s on your dad’s side and it doesn’t get passed down via males’.”
For Rachelle, having a preventative bilateral mastectomy wasn’t a matter of ‘if’, but ‘when’. However, almost 12 months after receiving the BRCA2 diagnosis, a mammogram, and CT and bone scans confirmed the mother-of-two had grade three breast cancer, which has since spread beyond her breast and lymph nodes and into her bones.
Now classified as metastatic – advanced stage four – there is no cure for Rachelle.
“It turned my world upside down, but I guess at the same time, why we’re here is that I want my sister to have the preventative surgery,” she tells Mamamia.
