New York Times. Angelina Jolie has double mastectomy to reduce risk of breast cancer

Angelina Jolie has revealed she has had a preventive double mastectomy to reduce her risk of developing breast cancer, and has gone public with the news to raise awareness.

The actor has a defective gene, BRCA1, which significantly increases her risk of developing breast cancer, the disease that killed her mother at the age of 56, she writes in the New York Times.

Jolie says she chose not to keep the decision private in the hope that other women would get gene-tested. "Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimise the risk," she says.

Women with a defect in BRCA1 have on average a 65% risk of developing breast cancer. Jolie says her doctors told her that her risk was 87% and that surgery had reduced it to 5%. The defect also increases the risk of ovarian cancer, which Jolie says doctors estimate is 50% for her.

Jolie said her children had often asked if she might get the illness that killed her mother, Marcheline Bertrand. She says now: "I can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.

"It is reassuring that they see nothing that makes them uncomfortable. They can see my small scars and that's it. Everything else is just Mommy, the same as she always was."

Jolie adds: "I want to encourage every woman, especially if you have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, to seek out the information and medical experts who can help you through this aspect of your life, and to make your own informed choices."