Nina Garcia To Get Preventive Double Mastectomy

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- 'Project Runway' judge Nina Garcia revealed she plans to get a preventive double mastectomy in an essay in Elle.

Garcia, the editor-in-chief of Elle, said she will miss Fashion Week for the first time in 25 years as a result of the surgery.

In the essay she wrote that she got genetic testing back in 2015 because of her family history. Her results showed that she was at high risk for breast cancer due to a mutation to the BARD1 gene. She wrote that she had kept a close eye on the situation, getting biopsies and lumpectomies.

"I was living in a loop of testing, every day waking up thinking: Is today the day I will get cancer?," she wrote. "I no longer wanted to have these scary thoughts, and I knew the only way they would stop was to schedule the surgery. The answer was clear."

According to the essay, it was after Garcia received test results from this past January that she decided to get the surgery.

Garcia also encouraged other women to be open about their lives.

"I ultimately decided to write this in hopes that my story might serve as comfort to at least one woman out there who is going through something similar," Garcia wrote. "For that woman, I want you to know that you are not alone."

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