Meet the Models, SoCal: Liz Lawrence & Rainee Griffin
Identical twins Liz Lawrence and Rainee Griffin are understandably close, even owning a business together. Their shared medical journey has brought them even closer.
To start, their grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer twice, followed by ovarian cancer. Her daughter, Liz and Rainee’s mother, would follow the same path. At 35, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001, prior to genetic testing. A lumpectomy was performed, but the cancer returned in 2003. By then, UCLA was running initial programs for genetic testing, so both Liz and Rainee, at their mother’s urging, traveled to get tested. It would save their life, as they both tested positive for BRCA1. It meant higher monitoring and frequent scans for them both, but much like their grandmother, their mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2006. She would go on to beat cancer a third time, but shortly after passed from a car accident: “That was really rough time. I can look back now and be grateful it wasn’t cancer. She could not have been someone who slowly died from cancer, so I try to look at is as a blessing that she was taken quick.”
When their cousin, fellow model Alanna, was diagnosed with breast cancer in her 30’s, it prompted Liz to get her preventative double mastectomy in 2017. Rainee followed the same path in 2018. Years later, the two would go on to get hysterectomies, this time Rainee going first with Liz following. They joke they were guinea pigs for each other for each surgery.
When asked to reflect on what genetic testing and being aware of their chance of cancer did for them, both echo the same sentiment: “There is anxiety that comes with knowing. It can make you paranoid and overwhelmed- any little thing in your body makes you worry it’s breast cancer. Thee is also constant scan anxiety, but that was worth it compared to what people have to do when cancer actually comes- then they are doing our surgeries on top of chemo and radiation. In the end, knowledge really is power.”