CNN’s anchor Zoraida Sambolin delivered some very personal news on CNN’s “Early Start” this morning. Following Angelina Jolie’s op-ed in the New York Times about her decision to have a double mastectomy, Sambolin announced she will undergo the same procedure later this month.
“I was recently diagnosed with breast cancer,” Sambolin said. “I’m having a double mastectomy.”
Jolie had the surgery because she carried a gene that increases her risk for breast and ovarian cancers. The surgery has cut her breast cancer risk from 87% to under 5%. Sambolin was diagnosed about three weeks ago, and she will also have genetic testing as part of her mastectomy.
Sambolin got emotional talking about her decision. “As a woman your sexuality and your breasts and how attached you are to them, right, as a woman. So at the end of the day, it’s really difficult to say that I’m thinking about this, that this is something that affects me when I have two kids I want to live for. At the end of day I’m going to cut off my arms if it means that I am going to live to see them and to see them grow up.”
Video after the jump…