Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie says she underwent a double mastectomy earlier this year after learning she has a “faulty gene” putting her at a high risk for breast cancer.

Jolie writes in today’s New York Times that her mother died of breast cancer at age 56 and she didn’t want her children to fear losing their mother to the disease.

Doctor Anne Wallace is the Director of the Breast Care Centre at the University of California San Diego. She praises Jolie for her courage. But she also warns the decision is not for everybody. Wallace says it’s a big decision, a big operation that requires a long recovery time and a great deal of support.

The 37-year-old Jolie says she made the choice after doctors told her she had an 87 per cent chance of contracting breast cancer.