From an “all clear” mammogram result in January to testing positive for the gene that causes breast cancer, to an actual breast cancer diagnosis just a week after that – that’s been 2023 so far for “Today” show lifestyle contributor Jill Martin. She joined co-hosts Hoda Kotb (who fought her own battle with breast cancer) and Savannah Martin on the morning show yesterday to inform viewers – and educate them.
Martin explained how she had a clear mammogram in January, but because breast cancer runs in her family, she was tested for the cancer-causing BRCA gene on the recommendation of her doctor – and it came back positive. Martin then made the difficult decision to opt for a preventive bilateral mastectomy – but just a week after receiving news she had the gene that predisposed her to breast cancer, she got even worse news – as breast cancer was detected during a routine preoperative MRI.
What’s next for the “Today” show anchor? A leave of absence, effective immediately, to undergo a bilateral mastectomy and begin additional treatment. After the mastectomy, Martin plans on getting a preventative hysterectomy. “I’ll have to have a hysterectomy in late October or around then in the fall, and then they do the second half of the reconstruction then,” she says. “That test (for the BRCA gene) saved my life. Had I not gotten the test, I wouldn’t have got the scans and we would be telling a very different story,” Martin said on yesterday’s show. “So I feel super grateful to be here, to be able to say talk to your doctors and go get tested.”
