The 41-year-old popular radio show host underwent a double mastectomy as well as removal of her ovaries and fallopian tubes after discovering she carries the BRCA2 gene that puts her at 58% risk of disease.
- Elizabeth Kay, 41, is the host of 99.1 The MIX, but she has been speaking to her listeners about her life-changing surgeries.
- The mother-of-one has almost a 60% chance of getting cancer, so she has taken steps into her own hands.
A beloved Wisconsin radio show host has had a double mastectomy and plans to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed, after discovering she carries a gene that increases her risk of cancer.
Elizabeth Kay, 41, is the host of 99.1 The MIX, but she has been speaking to her listeners about the life-changing surgeries she will undergo in an attempt to beat her 58 percent risk of cancer.
The mother-of-one is a BRCA2 carrier, which doctors calculated meant her risk of contracting the disease was 58 percent, worse odds than flipping a coin.
After consulting, she decided to have a double mastectomy.
Elizabeth Kay posted an Instagram photo of herself from her hospital bed today, with the caption: “All set let’s get it done.” i love my doctors
She said: “I will have reconstructive surgery and then my ovaries and fallopian tubes will also be removed.”
She posted an Instagram photo of herself from her hospital bed today, with the caption: “All set let’s get it done.” I love my doctors.
Kay, who has been on the Milwaukee airwaves since 2009, told WISN: ‘We’ve had a couple of our family members in the past few years that have been diagnosed with breast cancer.
‘And then we had another family member who was diagnosed and of a similar age and that made everyone stop and wonder, ‘OK, is this hereditary cancer? What does this mean for the rest of us in the family?
I have decided to go ahead and take these preventive measures similar to what Angelina Jolie has done, and have a bilateral mastectomy.
‘Then I will have reconstructive surgery, and then my ovaries and fallopian tubes will also be removed.
‘This is serious. It’s in my family and I’m being proactive. I don’t want any part of the cancer.
“And if I can be preemptive and I have this information, I’m going to do something with it.”
Kay has been on the airwaves in Milwaukee since 2009
Kay often posts heartwarming images and videos of her family life, with her husband Eric (right) and their teenage son Brayson.
Kay pictured with her teenage son, Brayson
She donated a kidney in March 2021 to a stranger in Kentucky on behalf of her mother-in-law, Camille, so she could get an even better matched kidney through the matched kidney exchange program.
After getting tested, Kay revealed that her family carried the BRCA2 gene mutation, which stands for breast cancer gene 2.
It increases the risk of breast, ovarian, and fallopian tube cancer, because the gene provides instructions for making a protein that acts as a tumor suppressor.
When this gene is mutated, it is less effective at making the tumor suppressor protein, and therefore less effective at keeping any potential cancer at bay.
The BRCA2 protein is also involved in repairing damaged or modified DNA, which, biologically speaking, is what causes cancer.
This isn’t the first time the mother-of-one has gone into surgery.
She donated a kidney in March 2021 to a stranger in Kentucky on behalf of her mother-in-law, Camille, so she could get an even better matched kidney through the matched kidney exchange program.
Kay often posts heartwarming images and clips from her family life, with her husband Eric and their teenage son Brayson.
