Andy mill and greg norman12/10/2023 Evert still winces when I mention that, as the US Open begins on Monday, it is 51 years since she made her unforgettable breakthrough in New York. Her bruising encounters with cancer also mean she reflects candidly on life. Don’t wait three months.”Įvert supported the Women’s Tennis Association’s ACEing Cancer charity even before her diagnosis and she is proud that a new research fund, supported by the WTA, has been named after her sister. Be aware of your genetic history and if you feel anything different in your body for three days, see your doctor. So I want to get the word out about genetic testing – not just for ovarian cancer but heart conditions, diabetes, everything. “If it had not been for Jeanne’s death I would not be alive. They found cancer in my fallopian tube and one ovary, and in the fluid around my reproductive organs. It was just a precaution because I felt so healthy. My doctor said you need to have a hysterectomy right away. They tested it and she was positive for BRCA so right away they said: ‘You have to be tested.’ I tested positive for BRCA. A new variant had emerged and Jeanne had a gene of uncertain significance. “Two years after Jeanne died I got a call from the geneticist who stored her blood. We begin this way and it shows Evert’s willingness to discuss cancer as well as her desire to develop awareness. Normally, during a long interview, you save the difficult subjects for later but it’s different with Evert. I should never complain about anything else in life after that experience.”Ĭhris Evert and her sister Jeanne Evert Dubin, who died in 2020. I could tell everyone I have ovarian cancer stage one and I’m going through chemo and the doctors say there is a 90-to-95% chance the cancer won’t come back. They said I needed six rounds of chemotherapy and so I made an announcement. Sometimes you just have to surrender if you can’t change it.”Įvert looks up and smiles, in relief. ![]() To watch her go through that kept coming in spurts, like fear, those four days. ![]() They made her violently ill and she weighed 80lb when she passed. I’d seen her with ports in her chest and needles in her arms and, after chemo, going through experimental drugs. “I thought a lot about Jeanne and it was scarier knowing what the journey ahead would be for me if I was stage four, more than the actual dying. Those memories shrouded her four-day wait. I was also shocked, like I was in a fog, and I was so scared I used my powers on the court and tried to block it out a little.”Įvert was close to her sister and witnessed her years of suffering. “I prayed a lot, and I prayed to my sister. “I felt so anxious because I had no control over the situation,” she says. She was revered for her composure on court, even when she first became famous after reaching the semi-finals of the US Open in 1971 at the age of 16 but Evert looks up with a tangled expression when I ask her to describe her emotions while waiting for those test results. The 67-year-old has been such a familiar presence for so long, firstly as a remarkable tennis player and then in the commentary box, that it feels jolting to hear her confront her own death. But Evert’s blunt reaction is understandable. Medical research suggests that patients who have stage four ovarian cancer have a 15% chance of surviving for more than five years while the prognosis improves to over 25% for those in stage three. When you find out you have ovarian cancer you’re usually stage three or four, which means curtains, basically.” ![]() My kind of cancer, ovarian cancer, is very insidious and sneaky as there aren’t many signs that you have it. If I tested positive for the lymph nodes I would have been stage three or four. She had then been tested to ascertain whether the cancer had spread, as she says “all the way to the lymph nodes connected to my reproductive organs. Evert, who won 18 grand slam titles from 1974 to 1986, had just come through surgery for ovarian cancer. “It was the longest four days of my life,” Chris Evert says as she remembers facing her mortality last December while waiting for a second cancer diagnosis.
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