A 24-year-old woman has gained a legion of fans online after documenting her journey leading up to a double mastectomy and her road to recovery. Paige More, who tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation and has a family history of ovarian and breast cancer on her father’s side, said she wants people to view her as a “previvor,” PEOPLE reported.
Once she tested positive for the genetic mutation, doctors presented her with the option for a double mastectomy or a lifetime of surveillance, the news outlet reported.
“It was this huge daunting feeling, because I was making this huge life decision and either choice was really going to change my life,” More, a Good Morning America booker, told PEOPLE. “Even if I choose to do the surveillance, I’m choosing to spend so much of my life in the doctor’s office. It felt less like a surveillance and more like I was waiting to get cancer, and I’ve never been that person. I wanted to just tackle this thing for my life and my future.”
More underwent a double mastectomy in January, and said she was moved to share her story with others partly to help her 13-year-old sister cope.
“I just hope that in a couple years when she gets tested, god forbid I hope she’s not positive, but if she is she can think back to this and say I can do this too,” More told PEOPLE.
She set up an Instagram page under the handle @paige_previvor and has since gained more than 12,400 followers. Her posts, which regularly garner more than 1,000 likes and hundreds of comments, provide an insight to her medical recovery as well as her return to her work and life activities.
“I never expected such a beautiful amount of support,” More told PEOPLE. “I call them my breast friends. You’re instantly connected to these people, even if you don’t actually know them.”
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