Angelina Jolie made headlines earlier this month when she published an op-ed in The New York Times about her decision to remove both her breasts and her ovaries as a measure to reduce her high chances of developing breast and ovarian cancer. As Jolie said in her column, she carries the BRCA1 gene, which gave her a 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer and 50 percent risk of developing ovarian cancer. Jolie thus underwent a preventive double mastectomy, lowering her chances of breast cancer to less than five percent.

Jolie's own mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of ovarian cancer at the age of 56 and, in her op-ed, Jolie wrote that she didn't want her children to fear that they would lose her to breast cancer.

Now, the Toronto Sun reports, Jolie's aunt and Bertrand's younger sister, Debra Martin, has revealed that she is fighting breast cancer for the second time. Martin, 61, was diagnosed with stage-four breast cancer in 2004 and underwent a lumpectomy, the Sun says. Last year, however, the disease recurred.

Martin said she pushed Jolie to have the surgery after her own disease returned, the Sun says, and that she is supportive of her niece's efforts to stave off cancer and live a healthy life. "I believe this was the right thing to do," Martin told the National Enquirer. "I think it has reduced her chances of getting breast cancer dramatically. If I had informed myself better before I got breast cancer, I would have made the same decision."

Bertrand's former partner, filmmaker Bill Day, has also praised Jolie for her decision, saying she had a good role model in Martin.