Christina Applegate
The Married with Children star announced that she was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2008—and revealed just a year later that she was cancer-free after a double mastectomy. Applegate, 47, had inherited the BRCA1 genetic mutation, a trigger for breast cancer, which her mother is also a survivor. In 2009, she founded Right Action for Women, which assists women at increased risk for breast cancer who don’t have the insurance or financial means to cover the high costs of breast screenings.
Applegate currently stars in Netflix’s Dead to Me, where she plays Jen Harding, a real estate agent whose husband was killed in a hit-and-run accident. She pushed for a scene in the series where Harding has a double mastectomy following the death of her mother from breast cancer. “I thought this was my chance to tell a little bit about me, but also all the women that have gone through that,” she told USA Today in 2019.
