Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in American women aside from skin cancers.
In 2012, an estimated 39,000 woman died from the disease. Many women face the choice of having surgery to save their lives once they are detrected with the disease.
One woman whose mother, grandmother, and great aunt died form breast cancer is taking every precaution she can so she will not follow in their footsteps and die earlier then she should, without even being diagnosed with breast cancer.
Allyn Rose, 24 will be on stage this Saturday night as she competes in the Miss America Pageant as Miss DC.
She will show off her beautiful body in her gown and bikini, share her roller skating abilities, and smile that gorgeous smile for all the world to see.
Win or lose, after the pageant, Rose plans on undergoing a double mastectomy to remove both of her breasts as a preventative measure in the hopes she will reduce her chance of getting breast cancer.
Rose said;
"My mom would have given up every part of her body to be here for me, to watch me in the pageant. If there's something that I can do to be proactive, it might hurt my body, it might hurt my physical beauty, but I'm going to be alive."
Her father gave her the idea a few years ago after her mother died. She fought him about the idea saying she loved her body.
His response; "Well then you're going to end up dead like your mom."
A sombering response that made Rose really question the suggestion.
Rose admits that she comes across as a cold, person to many, and she says that because she did not have her mom with her she had to do things for herself;
"You have to block out everything and I think sometimes that makes me appear a little cold, But it's because I had to be my own mentor, I had to be my own best friend."
For several years after her dad's idea, she has thought about it while she modeled and entered and won several pageants, that have gotten her to be in Miss America Saturday.
In three years, Rose will be the same age as her mom was when she had one breast removed at 27, but she did not remove the other until she was 47 and that is when they found the tumor that was stage three and it was too late.
Her father calls it a ticking time bomb and Rose has agreed, and that is why she will do the procedure and not wait like her mom did.
She will have reconstructive surgery after the mastectomy, but she has no idea if she will regain her, "pageant approved bust".
While many applaud her decision, cancer survivors, cancer patients,who are choosing to follow her lead and Art McMaster, CEO of the Miss America Organization, who said Rose was an "incredible example" of strength and courage, there are many who say she should not do it.
She is being told;
'Don't have the surgery. This is mutilating your body. You don't have cancer.'
Rose says that some even say she is faking it so people will give her the sympathy vote. Rose is doing this for herself, her family, to save her life.
Rose has said that if she wins Saturday she would wait a year, but has decided to get the surgery done during her Miss America reign, should she win, as a way of helping her fight against breast cancer.
"I've been thinking how powerful that might be to have a Miss America say, 'I might be Miss America but I'm still going to have surgery. I'm going to take control of my own life, my own health care,' "
You can watch Allyn Rose this Saturday night on The 2013 Miss America Pageant on ABC at 9/8 ct.
What do you think about Allyn's choice? Would you do the same?
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