Lindsay Avner may not be a “typical” face of inspiration. But what face is? Lindsay’s inspirational road certainly has not been typical. The beautiful soon to be married thirty something is just as inspiring as she is sweet. Her journey and story has resonated with millions of women around the country including celebrities like Giuliana Rancic. The Founder and CEO of Bright Pink, an eight year old non-profit organization who’s mission is to save young women’s lives from breast and ovarian cancer through proactive measures, made a brave decision at the young age of 23.
Inspired by her family’s battle with cancer, knowledge was power for Lindsay. She decided to gain as much knowledge as possible about cancer, because a lot of women on her mom’s side had succumbed to breast and ovarian cancer before she was even born. Her own mother is a 21 year survivor of breast cancer and a 20 year ovarian cancer survivor. Lindsay tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation at age 22 and then became the youngest person in the country at the age of 23 to have a risk reducing double mastectomy. I’ve personally known Lindsay for a number of years and always admired her story. However I truly wanted to learn more details about her journey and share her inspiring story with the world. We sat down recently for an intimate conversation and I’m ecstatic that she graces our cover for the “Inspirational Women” issue.
DC: Lindsay, you made a brave and bold decision to be proactive at reducing your risk of breast cancer at the very young age of 23. Describe your thought process when pondering that decision.
LA: In the beginning I was very against the decision, because I was young, single and dating. I didn’t want to have scars and not feel like a woman. However it clicked when my friends and I were getting ready to go out and I realized that a couple of them had already chosen to have breast reductions and breast lifts. At that moment I realized that by choosing surgery would reduce my risk of getting breast cancer by over ninety percent, and that made more sense to me than having a few scars. Then the decision became very, very easy and my thought process went from “How could I ever have this surgery?” to “How could I never have this surgery?” Following surgery I felt a tremendous weight lifted from my shoulders. That cloud of cancer that followed me my throughout my life was gone as I took my health in to my own hands. It motivated me to help others. Whether women had a family history or not, they needed to know what more they could do, in order to know their risk for cancer, and ultimately take action.
DC: Did anyone try to talk you out of having surgery or did you have reservations leading up to the procedure?
LA: Oh yeah, but I didn’t share that information with many people, because I didn’t know what it would mean for me in the future. I was thinking, who would want to go out on a date with a girl that has been through that? It wasn’t so much that people were trying to talk me out of the surgery, because they really didn’t fully understand what was going on. But leading up to a month before the surgery every consecutive night I had a dream that I was missing a body part. I think it was anxiety built up to about what it would be like to miss my breasts. As women we’re very resilient, but sometimes we play that what if game instead of knowing that we have the power to do something that generations of women before us never had. What a blessing and how fortunate are we to be able to do that.
"That cloud of cancer that followed me my throughout my life was gone as I took my health in to my own hands. It motivated me to help others. " LA