What BRCA testing and Erin Brockovich have in common

So, the announcement from Streeting felt like an “Erin Brockovich” moment – the scene when Julia Roberts tells a victim of a toxic water scandal that she will be receiving a £5 million dollar payout "for whatever you need, whatever your girls need, for whatever your girls' girls need". Cue lots of tears and hugs.

This may sound hyperbolic – and I am certainly no Erin Brockovich – but news of a long-term BRCA testing programme for the Jewish community felt a long time coming.

But like every good Hollywood ending, there has to be a compelling back story. This one started in 2000, when my mum, aged 54, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Very sadly, she died in 2002, aged 56. While I recall reporting on the discovery of BRCA during my first stint at the JC, it never occurred to me that I was writing my own story. I knew of a great-great-grandmother who’d had breast cancer and a cousin of my mum’s, who lived in America – but the former was aeons ago and the latter miles away – so neither cancer nor BRCA were things I needed to worry about. Until my brother (thankfully) made me. In 2010, I went for a test and discovered I was a BRCA carrier – and (thankfully) went on to have preventative surgeries.

I was one of the lucky ones. Some only found out they were BRCA positive when they were diagnosed with cancer. Others discovered they were carriers, but Covid and NHS waiting lists meant that tragically cancer arrived before their place in the queue for surgery. And some, like my mum, never even had the privilege of being able to check if they could put those four letters after their name.

Then, in January 2024, the NHS Jewish BRCA Testing Programme was launched and BRCA became part of the cancer conversation. Thousands of people with at least one Jewish grandparent registered, and 550 people – around two per cent – have so far been found to carry a BRCA mutation. They will have access to genetic counselling, surveillance and preventative treatments.

But, at the end of October 2025, the ability to register for the programme stopped. This was always the plan, though it left many of us wondering – what about our children and our children’s children? As well as older people who didn’t sign up because life took over, and those who will find out in the future that they have Jewish ancestry.

We began asking questions to NHS England and the Department of Health, and, thankfully, they have pledged to resume this life-saving programme during 2026 – hence my Hollywood-esque meltdown in the un-Hollywoodesque surroundings of my kitchen that Friday afternoon.

But the real “Erin Brockovich” of this story is an unassuming professor called Ranjit Manchanda, who was fighting for 17 years for people with Jewish heritage to have access to BRCA testing on the NHS, after seeing too many women coming into his clinic with advanced ovarian cancer. It is to him our community owes so much.

Going for a BRCA test, with all its implications, is scary. But, as one person I interviewed said, a positive BRCA test will only tell you what has always been there. Now armed with the knowledge, action can follow – and hopefully give BRCA carriers their Hollywood ending.

To register your interest in NHS BRCA testing, go to:

nhsjewishbrcaprogramme.org.uk/ and scroll down or click here

To find out more about BRCA, go to jewishbrca.org or click here

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