Give the gift of parenthood and a future free from devastating genetic disorders.

Jess, 35 describes her family as having a close bond built on love and connection but having a history of heartbreak and loss. In December of 2023, Jess and her partner Jacob, with help from The Royal Hospital for Women have changed the course of history in their family, with the arrival of a healthy baby - free from genetic disorders.

Jess’ grandfather was the only sole survivor in his family of the horrific camps in Auschwitz, with all 10 of his siblings sadly perishing in the war. Years later when he married, migrated to Australia, had children, and became a grandfather, the family were dealt more devastating blows.

Jess recently gave birth to her baby boy Max, the first in their family not to carry the BRCA gene thanks to pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) at The Royal.

Jess remembers it being a very scary time - adults whispering, desperately trying to shield Jess and Laura from the horrors of cancer. The community was always willing to help, chipping in with various tasks. At one point, each afternoon Jess and Laura saw a different mother from the school take them home.

Their mother eventually overcame her aggressive form of breast cancer with her remission involving several years of routine check-ups and monitoring. When she was cancer-free, health professionals discussed the BReast CAncer gene (BRCA) with the family and explained how the genes impact a person’s chance of developing breast cancer.

The BRCA gene can be passed down genetically and means that the carrier has a 45% to 85% higher risk of developing breast cancer and 10% to 46% higher risk of developing ovarian cancer. 1 in 200 Australians currently carry the BRCA gene.

Jess was just 11 years old when her mum required a double mastectomy – preventative surgery that helps reduce the risk of the cancer returning. It was also the age she learnt that her and her sister would both have a 50% chance of also carrying BRCA gene.

Both Jess and Laura were advised that the best time to get tested would be at least 10 years before the age their mother was diagnosed, meaning they would wait until they both turned 30.

Three years before this, at age 27, Laura was diagnosed breast cancer.

Jess recalls the day that their family found out that Laura’s cancer had spread to her lymph nodes as being “the scariest day of my life, thankfully it was detected before there was further spread.”

Laura went through six rounds of chemotherapy, two surgeries and radiation to beat the cancer. Later, they were both tested for the BRCA gene, Laura went first and at no surprise to either of them, she tested positive. Thinking it could not impact all of them in their family, they were convinced Jess would not have the gene.

Tests revealed that both Jess and Laura are carriers of the BRCA gene.

In 2022, Jess met her now husband, Jacob. They both knew they wanted children however Jess always felt doubt about the process with the increased likelihood of her passing on the BRCA gene.

In recent years, genetics and reproductive medicine has come a long way to help women like Jess.

The introduction of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), means that embryologists are now able to test embryos before they are transferred, removing embryos effected by genetic disorders such as the BRCA gene.

At The Royal, PGD is offered to patients under the care of The Fertility and Research Centre (FRC) under a hybrid private/public model. It is only thanks to philanthropy that the FRC opened in 2017 as Australia’s first public, holistic fertility and research centre with the mission to help women and men have a chance of a family, regardless of their background, circumstances, or socioeconomic status.

In 2023 Jess and Jacob started their journey to parenthood under the care of The Royal’s Dr Rachael Rodgers as the first public patients to access the service.

Of the eight eggs that were collected, six of them sadly carried the BRCA gene, but thankfully two of them didn’t.

After their first transfer, Jess and Jacob received the incredible news that one of their two healthy BRCA-free embryos was successfully implanted, and they were pregnant.

After a healthy and low-risk pregnancy, they welcomed Max into the world here at The Royal Hospital for Women on 28 December 2023.

PGD means that in the future, generations will be free from disorders which previously had thought impossible. The team in the FRC are working on eliminating cruel disorders such as Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, cardiac diseases and of course the BRCA gene.

The program is currently in its early stages in The Royal’s FRC and our hope is to expand this service to make it more accessible to those who need it most. Like Jess and Laura, many people carry genes but have hopes of a healthy family. Our hope is that we can make this happen.

Help us make genetic disorders a thing of the past.