EASTENDERS and Strictly star Kara Tointon has revealed she has undergone a double mastectomy.

Brave Kara, 41, who played Dawn Swann in the hit BBC soap, had the op after finding out she carries the BRCA1 gene, which raises the risk of breast cancer.

Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, Kara shared an emotional post about her private ordeal.

She explained how she made the daunting decision to go under the knife after losing her mum to ovarian cancer in 2018.

Kara told fans she had both her breasts and her Fallopian tubes removed in a potentially life-saving operation.

She shared a candid video, made with leading gynaecological cancer charity The Eve Appeal, and captioned: “I am sharing with you my journey with the BRCA1 gene.

“It’s about understanding, choices, and taking control. Hope this helps someone out there.”

In the video, Kara – sat in a grey hoodie – says: “You may have heard of the BRCA genes, type 1 and 2, and as a carrier it means that I am at a greater risk of both breast and ovarian cancer.

“Back in 2018 when my mum was undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer, I was asked to take a genetics test.

“There is a history of both cancers in my family but for various reasons including generational trauma of which I’ll talk more about another time, we hadn’t looked into it until that point.”

She went on: “But it was put to us, we took the test and it was confirmed that my mum and I both carried the gene.”

Kara, who is a mother-of-two, said her family was at the forefront of her mind when making the decision.

EastEnders’ Kara Tointon says she’d ‘never say never’ to returning as Dawn Swann after 12 years

She explained: “I was pregnant with my first child at the time, knew I wanted more children if possible so over the next couple of years I was invited to various meetings by the NHS to really become informed and to understand all my options.

“Last year, having had my second son in 2021 and deciding that our family was complete, I underwent two preventative surgeries.

“The first, a double mastectomy and the second, a two-part protector study, a trial.

“They believe that ovarian cancer begins in the Fallopian tubes so by removing them first checking out you can remove the ovaries later.”

Kara, who previously won Strictly Come Dancing, spoke about how undergoing tests made her want to have the surgery.

“We are finding out more and more about personal genetics and most people believe in surveillance, but after doing this for a couple of years, having MRIs, waiting for biopsy, we decided that this was the right decision for me and my family,” she added.

She then spoke about it not being an “easy” decision to make, but added that she was glad she went through with it.

“I wasn’t an easy decision, but one I am very glad that I made,” she said.

“I can now with hindsight talk about it properly,” Kara added.

Concluding the video, Kara said: “I’d like to thank my surgeons Dr Adam Rosenthal and Dr Gerard Cuie, I can’t thank them enough.

“I wanted to talk about it because hearing other people’s experience, helped so much and knowledge is power, communication is key, getting to know our bodies, our cycles is only a good thing, but I’ll be talking about this a lot more.

“Happy Lippy month and take care.”

About Kara

The actress rose to fame on the BBC soap playing Dawn, a bright teen from an impoverished home.

Kara played Dawn for more than 300 episodes until 2009 after joining four years earlier.

She has plenty of film and TV credits under her belt, including the lead role in prestige series, The Teacher and Too Good To Be True.

In 2010, she won Strictly Come Dancing alongside professional dancer, Artem Chigvintsev.

Before joining EastEnders, Kara had dated Busted band member, James Bourne and even appeared in the band’s reality series, America or Busted.

She got engaged to her chiropractor partner, Marius Jensen, in 2018 and she gave birth to their first child, a son in November that year.

The couple welcomed a second son in 2021, but announced they’d split the following year.