commonwealth

Isn't she inspiring and brave?

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/my-med...514-2jjyu.html

Hebe

What a very traumatic decision to make and then to have to go public with it must have been hard. However, if she hadn't have done then the papers etc etc would have being making reference to the fact of has she or hasn't she had a boob job!! Good on her and wish her well in her recovery.

carolinephillips

I don't particularly like Angelina Jolie, but I respect her decision to go public in the hope that it might help other women in a similar situation.

Cheetah7

If the risk is also for ovarian cancer, I wonder if she will have her ovaries removed - I think the risk for that was 50%? A very brave and difficult decision to make.

Cancer is such a bastard, I wish they would find a cure. My sister has it at the moment and my Dad has just been diagnosed with lung cancer.

My heart goes out to Angelina for having to go through this.

Kim67

It is a bastard - I lost both my parents to it. My 14 year old Daughter has a friend that was diagnosed three years ago at 11 and has been in and out of remission. They've just stopped her treatment as she's not responding, really hard to take.

Cheetah7

I wonder if they will ever find a cure - it just seems never ending. I lost Mum to cancer, and now my sister and Dad have it - I am so angry.

But for a child to get it is even harder to accept. There seems to be more of it (cancer) now, or perhaps I am just more aware of it due to my family history.

Dad was telling me about a 14 year old girl being diagnosed with ovarian cancer that died, (in the UK).

Kim67

I think treatment is way better than it used to be, unfortunately it's the really aggressive nature of some cancers that take hold before people are even aware they have them and then it's too late. I'll never forget the look on my 11 year old's face when her friend was sent overseas for treatment - until then, cancer had been a thing that "old people" get, she just couldn't get her head around the fact that they were 11 years old. I don't know whether she's clicked now either that the end of treatment is not a good thing for her friend. They live half a world apart now and only speak online so I don't know how the girl herself is handling it. She was an only child until her mum had a little surprise about three months before she was diagnosed.

Jon77

My mum went through breast cancer 8 years ago, thankfully she caught it very early before there was even a lump (picked up at a routine scan) and her treatment was very good. Her Aunt wasn't so lucky, very aggressive and she died not longer after being diagnosed as it had already spread.

My Grandfather died of prostrate cancer, again this was the aggressive form and it spread too far before they could do anything.

Cancer impacts all families, it is a bastard of a disease.

Respect to Angelina for doing what she has done and being open about it.

moneypenny20

Already been roundly abused for my comments on her elsewhere but I don't see anything brave about it tbh. She discovered she had an 85% chance of getting a seriously bloody awful disease and made the decision to lower that percentage to 5%. She made a sensible, intelligent decision but brave? Not in my book.

DeadVim

In a rare fit of agreement I, er, agree.

Bravery is leading soldiers into enemy fire, hacking your knockers off and telling the world about it isn't.

januarymix

Considering she spends time with UN initiatives and tries to help more than just herself, I think she is a superb person.

Jon77

From my persepctive I think it is brave. When my mum got diagnosed she was given the option of having the same operation. But my mum being my mum she didn't want to tell us she had cancer and she didn't want to tell us about the operation. This was because firstly she didn't want to worry us and secondly she was VERY nervous about the operation.

In the end she did tell us but it was a very hard thing for her to communicate to her family.

Can you imagine dealing with those kinds of issues being on the world stage.

Bravery comes in all kinds of situations. For some with phobias / fears it could be stepping outside the front door or answering the telephone! I have know peope sink to their knees and lock up with terror at the thought of doing such small things, but I have also seen people face up to situations like this.

Bravery cannot be catergorised like being called a 'genious', this probably is over used. I don't feel the same way about the term bravery being over used.

The reality is that many people in their day to day lives are facing up to situations that instill great fear in to them and good on them for facing them, who am I to comment if they are brave or not. Also I don't think the fact she could afford this procedure and others can't adds anything, that is a different discussion.



"Being brave is when you have to do something because you know it is right, but at the same time, you are afraid to do it, because it might hurt or whatever. But you do it anyway.”

elice_in_oz

I kinda agree with you too MP. It was a sensible decision to make and she had the intelligence to use her fame to raise awareness. She is certainly a good person and what she did will most likely help some women go down that path and take action.
However, there are many women around the world who do not have the means of getting tested and/or who cannot afford this sort of preventative treatment and most likely top notch reconstruction. For these women, whether Jolie's boobs are real or fake makes not an iota of difference. They still live under the shadow of breast cancer.

Cheetah7

Good post John

My sister is going through high dose radiotherapy and her burns are ulcerated, she needs morphine to go through it, she said the pain is off the scale. Each time she speaks to my Dad, she cries yet she returns to each session knowing that the pain will intensify and knowing if she doesnt, the alternative is not worth thinking about and also knowing, that when she does go through the treatment, it may not work anyway - yet still she goes and has it done.

My sister is the bravest person I know at this moment in time, and so is my Dad. He is supporting my sister in her horrific treatment, it is devastating him and now he has the bastard disease himself and will go through treatment himself yet still be there for my sister.

You don't have to be a soldier to be brave, we are all different, our situations are different. Bravery takes many forms and in my opinion, anyone that battles a disease such as cancer - is brave.

DeadVim

I've been working hard to get rid of my nawks I really don't see the fuss.