Decoding Annie Parker: Movie about BRCA1 Gene

I am learning more and more each day about Breast Cancer. How can I not take the time to learn about something that, even though I cannot I have or have had it, affects me so very much right now at this point in my life.

What an amazing story to learn about the hereditary links between family members and breast cancer. To imagine that there was a time doctor's did not believe there was any sort of link. To a day like today, where a genetics test for BRCA1 can tell me, "YES, you are linked to your family and yes, you will most likely develop breast and/or ovarian cancer because of it." Wow!!

I actually had a OB/GYN that I told about my Aunt and Cousin being positive for BRCA1 a couple years ago. He told me, "I wouldn't worry too much, it's from your Dad's side of the family." NOT TRUE...it does not matter if it's your mom's or your dad's side.

Anyway, there's a new movie out that I would have probably overlooked in the past that I may take my TISSUES to and go see....if I can ever find where (so far it seems it's only been released at film festivals). Anyway, it's called Decoding Annie Parker, and I wanted to share this preview.

Decoding Annie Parker is a feature film based on the real lives of two remarkable women.  It is the story of Anne Parker, played by Samantha Morton, a sharp witted, funny and irrepressible young woman who watches her mother, then sister, fall victim to breast cancer.  When later, she herself is diagnosed with the disease she believes that her cancer must be hereditary in nature.  She is resolved to fight back against immeasurable odds.

The film is also the story of Dr. Mary-Claire King, played by Helen Hunt, the Berkeley based geneticist whose discovery of the BRCA1 gene and it’s link to hereditary breast cancer forever changed the understanding of the disease.  Hers is considered one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century.

Annie Parker and Mary-Claire King are separated by thousands of miles, by circumstance, background and education, but their lives gradually intertwine until a final, singular and life changing reckoning.