How far would you go to save your life

The world was stunned this week to learn that actress and director Angelina Jolie had a preventive mastectomy to avoid 87% odds of breast cancer due to the BRCA1 genetic mutation. Seattle performer and composer Eva Moon faced the same impossible choice.

Now the touring artist has written a solo musical about her experience and will be in London for one performance only, as a benefit for Macmillan Cancer Support on Thursday 13th June at our very own Sir Alexander Fleming Building.

Lest you think there’s nothing uplifting about such a personal self-exam, you haven’t seen Ms. Moon’s grasp of the subject. The Mutant Diaries: Unzipping My Genes is a feisty, frank, funny and fearless original musical comedy about turning a devastating prognosis into a new lease on life. Moon shares the humour as well as the struggle of dealing with a life-changing personal challenge – and living to laugh about it – with light-hearted songs like “Ta Ta, Tatas” and wild tales from her “Boob Voyage” party to temper the more wrenching and sombre moments she explores with honesty and candidness in songs like “Dreamland”.

In 2011, as her mother was dying of cancer, Eva learned she had inherited the BRCA1 genetic mutation from her. That twist of DNA skyrockets the risk of getting breast and ovarian cancer to near certainty. To combat those odds, she started making plans for surgery right away. The surgery – surgeries, actually: a hysterectomy and double mastectomy— were daunting. But if she were to forgo the procedures, her chances of getting cancer were nearly 90 percent.

“I had friends who tried to talk me out of it. They said, ‘You still have a 13 percent chance of not getting cancer’,” said Moon. “My response was, ‘Would you fly on an airline that had a 13 percent rate of not crashing?’ I was very confident I was doing the right thing. In the process, I discovered my mutant superpower. I got to change the future.”

Proceeds from the show will go to Macmillan Cancer Support. Kate Macauley of Macmillan said, “One in three of us will get cancer and it’s the toughest thing most of us will ever face. The number of people with cancer is growing every day. This show tells a personal and positive story about the hard choices women can face. We want to reach and improve the lives of every one of those people. Donations make up 98% of our income, so we simply couldn’t do what we do without you.”