A teacher who only found out she had breast cancer after having a BRCA test has paid tribute to Jnetics for saving her life.
Sophie Collis, who is in her early 30s and has one Jewish parent, shared her story with supporters at the charity’s annual Ladies’ Night: Knowledge is Power dinner last week.
In an appeal film, Sophie said that she had only decided to get tested after her brother put a Jnetics post about the NHS Jewish BRCA Testing Programme on a family WhatsApp chat.
“I knew I was ethnically Jewish, and so when I saw this post advertising the Jnetics BRCA screening, I knew it was a really important test for me to take,” she said.
One in 40 Ashkenazi Jews and one in 140 Sephardi Jews carry a BRCA gene mutation, compared to one in 250 people in the general population. There is a 50 per cent chance of a child inheriting the mutation.
Women who are BRCA 1 carriers have a lifetime risk of up to 79 per cent of developing breast cancer and those who are BRCA 2 up to 77 per cent. BRCA 1 carriers have as much as a 53 per cent chance of getting ovarian cancer and those with BRCA 2, 25 per cent.
Men are also impacted, with male BRCA 2 carriers having up to 35 per cent risk of developing prostate cancer.
With no family history of breast or ovarian cancer, when results revealed she was a BRCA carrier, Sophie was “shocked” to discover what that meant in terms of her risk.
She began checking her breasts and discovered a lump, which was found to be triple negative grade 3 breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease.
Sophie Collis in the Jnetics film (Photo: Jnetics)[Missing Credit]
After undergoing surgery, chemotherapy and immunotherapy, Sophie is now “cancer free”. But she said that without having found out she was a BRCA carrier, she wouldn’t have checked her breasts, and even if she had found a lump, she said she “would have ignored it for a really significant amount of time before I went [to get it checked].
“So, having that knowledge, I think saved my life. It meant I got it checked. It meant I found it in the first place, and it meant I could start treatment really quickly before it had spread anywhere else.”
She said that since her diagnosis, a lot of her relatives have been tested for the BRCA gene mutation and that eight of them have been found to be carriers.
“People have been able to make choices about reproduction, people have been able to make choices about testing that will inform every generation in my family to come.”
People who find out they are BRCA carriers have options of risk-reducing surgery, chemoprevention (medication), and enhanced screening. Pre-implantation genetic testing of embryos may also be available.
Jnetics CEO Nicole Gordon told guests that 46,000 people had registered for the Jewish BRCA Testing Programme – for which Jnetics and Chai Cancer Care are community engagement partners – and that more than 680 people had been identified as BRCA carriers. “[They] now have the power to act on that knowledge – to monitor, to prevent, to protect themselves and their families.”
Committee members and guests at the Jnetics Knowledge is Power dinner (Photo: Paul Lang)[Missing Credit]
NHS England said the testing programme was expected to resume later this year after it finished in October. People who want to be tested can sign up to the waiting list at Jewishbrca.org and will be informed when they can apply for the test.
As well as BRCA testing, Jnetics screens for more than 50 of the most severe recessive genetic disorders more prevalent in people with Jewish ancestry. If both parents of a child are found to be carriers, there is a one in four chance their child will have the disorder. To prevent this, embryos can be screened pre-implantation.
The dinner also included a conversation between Jenny Halpern Prince MBE and Dr Brooke Vandermolen.
Dr Brooke Vandermolen (left) and Jenny Halpern Prince MBE (Photo: Paul Lang)[Missing Credit]
Halpern Prince is a co-founder of the Lady Garden Foundation, a charity which raises awareness and funding for gynaecological cancers, and Dr Vanderdermolen specialises in obstetrics and gynaecology.
Halpern Prince stressed the need for more awareness of the five gynaecological cancers – cervical, ovarian, uterine (womb), vaginal, and vulval cancers.
This week, she has been highlighting the issue at the Chelsea Flower Show with the charity’s “Silent No More” award-winning garden, designed by Darren Hawkes.
Dr Vandermolen, who uses her social media platform, @theobgynmum, to share insights and tips around pregnancy, birth, fertility and menopause, encouraged guests to see a GP if they noticed any unusual changes in their physical health.
She also talked about her new book on menstruation to menopause, Bloody Powerful.
Gordon said afterwards: “Ladies Night 2026 was a true celebration of community spirit, education and empowerment, and organisers extend their sincere thanks to everyone who attended, supported and contributed to such a meaningful and impactful evening.
"This year, demand to attend exceeded expectation, which is truly heart warming and a true reflection of the community’s commitment to the importance of genetic testing.”
For more information on BRCA testing, go to: jewishbrca.org or click here; and to learn more about screening for recessive disorders which are more common in people with Jewish ancestry, go to: jnetics.org or click here
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