‘It was an incredibly brave thing to do - I understand her head space now I'm a mum’: Megan Gale on Angelina Jolie’s decision to have ovaries removed as she fronts cancer awareness campaign
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- Published on Wednesday, 30 November -0001 00:00
- Written by Daily mail
Megan Gale has spoken out in support of Angelina Jolie's decision to have her ovaries and Fallopian tubes removed, saying she can empathise with the actress' 'head space' now that she is a mother herself.‘It was an incredibly brave thing to do and I can definitely understand that head space now that I am a mum myself,’ Megan, 39, told Daily Mail Australia.‘I think you’ve got to be mindful of doing what’s best for your children when you become a mum and you want to be in optimum health so you can look after your child to your best ability… if my kids don’t have me then their quality of life is reduced.’Angelina Jolie made headlines in March after having her ovaries and Fallopian tubes removed, after tests revealed she had the BRCA1 gene that gave her a 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer.Jolie was open about her surgery, writing a lengthy opinion piece in the New York Times explaining why she decided to do it and the importance of staying healthy for her six children.Supermodel Gale is fronting her fifth ovarian cancer awareness campaign for L'Oreal Paris with the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation.The campaign is named #10HOURS, in recognition of how one Australian woman dies every 10 hours from ovarian cancer, and is designed to raise both awareness and funds for the disease, which has no early detection test. Launching on Tuesday, it calls for high profile media influencers to upload an image of themselves wearing the official OCRF #10HOURS T-shirt to social media.
Gale said that while she can relate to the mums who are suffering from ovarian cancer, one of the scariest things for her is that it can occur at any age: ‘It doesn’t discriminate… I’ve met a lot of women who have lived with and are fighting this disease and some of them are in their early twenties,’ she said.‘There is no certain age where you need to be mindful, it can happen to anyone at any time…it’s scary.’‘I’ve been working with the OCRF for a few years now and it’s been a role I’ve been very humbled to be a part of,’ Gale told Daily Mail Australia.‘I didn’t know much about the disease at all before I started working with L’Oreal and with it being so close to their heart, I learned a lot about it, and one of the things that shocked me the most was the scary statistic that one woman dies every 10 hours from it.’ Gale says that the main goal of the 2015 campaign is to work on spreading awareness so funds can be raised and go towards detection technology and research.‘Even though the awareness has been heightened over the years, there is still no early detection so it can’t be prevented even if women are diligent with their check-ups,’ Gale said.‘Our main aim is to really drive home the importance of raising funds so that we can develop the test to detect it earlier and hopefully reduce that statistic and get on top of it.’The OCRF social media campaign will continue for the rest of July and throughout August.
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