CLAUDIA GILMORE

My name is Claudia Gilmore, I am 23 years old, and I had a preventative double mastectomy with reconstruction on January 11, 2011. This blog, and accompanying web series, are personal accounts of my experiences, feelings and decisions leading up to my surgery and proceeding through my recovery and reconstruction. I am eager to share my story with family, friends and the world in an effort to support any other woman with a hereditary risk of breast/ovarian cancer and trying to offset her risk in whatever way she feels comfortable. We are all in this together. And it is also for that reason that I lend my story up to the general public so that they, too, may understand and have compassion for the struggles, sorrows and joys that accompany life with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation.

I also dedicate this blog and web series to my father and my grandmother. If it weren’t for their courage, I would never have been given a new lease on life. I am forever indebted to these two inspirational people. I love you both with all my heart.