Billionaire James Packer’s ex-wife has revealed many of the women in her family have been stricken with breast cancer and she fears it’s only a matter of time before she does. either next time.
Erica’s mother, Sheelagh, and nearly all of her mother’s female relatives died of the disease, with her sister Jo Hunter narrowly surviving her battle after undergoing a double mastectomy.
The former model and singer has now teamed up with Jo to investigate their family’s tragic medical history and uncover the cause of the genetic curse.
The sisters’ research revealed that 18 out of 21 family members they examined died of cancer, 14 of whom had breast cancer.
Erica, who gets tested twice a year, had a terrifying scare last summer when doctors discovered a lump in her breast, which turned out to be a false alarm.
“You know, you’re suddenly confronted with your own mortality and, is that something or is it nothing at all? australian history program.
Erica Packer, ex-wife of billionaire James Packer (pictured together in 2008) revealed that many of the women in her family had been struck down by breast cancer and she feared it was just a matter of time before it is.
“And it’s something that families like ours go through every six months,” she said.
Jo said her sister was “just lucky at the time…it was a false alarm”.
But the threat of breast cancer casts a constant shadow over the couple, their own daughters and their brother’s daughters.
What further compounds their concerns is that no one knows the cause that links the cases in their family.
Their mother did not have the BRCA 1 or 2 genes, which are the two known genetic mutations that put a person at higher risk for breast cancer.
This means that the sisters do not carry these genes either, but they later discovered that there are a number of other genetic mutations that can cause breast cancer.
Erica and Jo are strong supporters of the National Breast Cancer Foundation, which funds scientific research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in Melbourne.
There, scientists and doctors seek to identify the inherited genes responsible for breast cancer that affects thousands of Australian families, including their own.
2011 proved to be a terrible year for the family, with their mother dying of breast cancer – after being first diagnosed and treated in 1999 – and Jo being diagnosed at the age of 39.
“As the saying goes, when it rains, it rains. It was pouring rain, said Jo. “At the time, I had been screened for breast cancer since the age of 35.
“So I had a clean mammogram in July, then in January I had three tumors in one of my breasts.”
Jo Hunter and Erica Packer are pictured with their mother Sheelagh Baxter (centre)
Erica Packer, then known as Erica Baxter, is pictured during Australian Fashion Week in Sydney May 3, 2005.
Erica Packer (right) is pictured with her sister Jo (left) and their parents Michael and Sheelagh
Erica Packer, then known as Baxter, is pictured during Australian Fashion Week April 28, 2006 in Sydney.
“My sister is one of my best friends in the world and I watch her have surgery not knowing if her cancer has spread,” Erica recalls.
But Jo remained confident despite her initial fear.
“It was pretty scary because I had been very diligent in the selection,” she said.
“I never believed for a minute that I was going to die or that I was going to be really sick…I just knew that everything would be fine.”
Early detection through his bi-annual testing proved crucial to his survival.
Jo did not need chemotherapy, but she underwent a bilateral mastectomy due to the high incidence of breast cancer in her family.
“After having a mastectomy, I started the breast reconstruction process and was very happy with my reconstruction,” she said.
In fact, she was so happy that she often talks to other women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer to give them hope about the outcome.
“Jo, when she meets women, she shows you what rebuilding looks like,” Erica said.
“Like when people were getting a diagnosis and they were scared and they were facing a mastectomy and all that, she was going to show them her boobs.
“Give them a peep show, look, they can still look great…the queen of the peep show.” Who knew?’
Jo added that “there was a joke at one point that there was nobody left in Sydney who hadn’t seen my boobs”.
Their family history with the disease led the sisters to support the breast cancer cause.
“When mum first got her prognosis, she went to all these chemo rooms, saw all the patients and saw what they were going through.
James Packer and his wife Erica arrive at the grand opening ceremony of Packer and Lawrence Ho’s City of Dreams casino June 1, 2009 in Cotai, Macau, China.
Erica Packer is pictured during the 2006 ARIA Awards at the Acer Arena in Sydney Olympic Park
Erica Packer is pictured at Chateau Marmont on April 28, 2014 in Los Angeles, USA
James Packer kisses his wife Erica during the 2008 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 27, 2008
“(And) how everyone is so brave and the nurses so brave and friendly, and I think that has really become part of our family,” Erica said.
Erica and Jo hope all the tests they’ve done, including DNA sequencing of their genes, will help find the cause of their family’s tragic medical history.
“There are…four little girls in the next generation who will be useful to them to find out what’s going on,” Jo said.
THE Australia Breast Cancer Network can be contacted on 1800 500 258.
