Jodi Brown is 34, a wife and working mother with two small children. Recently diagnosed as a high-risk candidate for breast cancer, she elected to have her breasts removed. Now, after having undergone the prophylactic bilateral mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, Brown is struggling to get her medical aid to pay for the procedure.
Spectramed says prophylactic surgery is excluded from cover and has declined to pay for the second part of the two-phase procedure.
Brown's case is an illustration of the potentially life-saving possibilities for women at risk of contracting breast cancer.
But it is also a warning that it may not be something medical aids will agree to.
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'Why should I sit back and wait for it to happen I can prevent it?' Brown watched her mother die of breast cancer, which had also claimed the lives of her grandmother and five great-aunts.
From the age of 12, she saw her mother undergoing chemotherapy and radiation, lapse into remission and spend time in hospital over an eight-year period. She had to nurse her mother.
"I watched her hair fall out. I saw her get sicker and sicker. Finally it went to her brain and there was no more hope. For six agonising weeks, we saw her die slowly."
Last year Brown underwent gene-profiling. It was found that she had 90 percent chances of contracting breast cancer before the age of 50.
She vowed to do everything in her power to ensure that her children would not go through what she had to, and that she would live to see them grow up.
So, with the support of her husband David, she decided on the double mastectomy.
"The other options were to undergo ultrasound examinations and mammograms every three months, with no guarantee that any changes would be picked up in time, and chemotherapy," Brown says.
"These days we have choices that can help us save our lives before they are at risk.
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