Cancer Screening Leads to Woman's Discovery of Many Siblings; Parents Sold Them at Birth

Cancer Screening sold at birth adopted as a baby BRCA gene mutation DNA Test breast cancer first-degree relative massachusetts Canada Montreal

By Lili Scott , Parent Herald Mar 04, 09:33 am

Photo: (Photo : JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK/AFP via Getty Images)

After her battle with breast cancer, Canadian mother Reissa Spier, 67, wanted a cancer screening that would indicate if she has the BRCA gene mutation that might put her daughter's health at risk but she was denied the test because she was adopted as a baby.

Spier said that to get the cancer screening she would need to find a first-degree relative who had the disease as well. Years later, her husband gifted her with a DNA test as a first step in the hopes of finding someone who could be related to her.

The DNA test partly informed the cancer survivor that she didn't carry the BRCA gene mutation. However, to her surprise, Spier not only discovered that she has many siblings and half-siblings in the U.S. and Canada but she also learned that their parents sold them as babies.

Tracking Their Mysterious Past

Spier has been spending the last few years reconnecting with her first-degree relatives. Her biological oldest sister, Rene Holm, who is based in Massachusetts, has been helping piece together the mystery surrounding their adoptions. They both wondered why their parents had Holm, gave her up, continued to live together, and then do the process of adoption all over again when Spier was born.

The sisters connected with a half-brother, Bob Bryntwick, who was raised in Montreal with his siblings Ed, Michael, Barbara and Anna. Bryntwick told The Washington Post, in his younger years, he often wondered why their mother, Anne Chop Bryntwick, was always pregnant and no one explained why the newborn babies were gone after a few days. Bob also remembered Ed telling him that their father, Mike Mitchell, was paid $10,000 for every child but that didn't make sense to him at that time.

Spier has used Ancestry.com and 23andMe to trace her family tree and in the process of her exploration, she discovered they have more half-siblings on their dad's side and full siblings from both parents. Spier has met some of them in person, including Sharon Coppola, who was adopted by a Jewish family as a baby.

Coppola knew she was adopted but she didn't learn that she had siblings, including a twin, until her adoptive mother passed away. But because of their sketchy past, Coppola doesn't know if her twin is one of the siblings she has already met. Barbara thinks she is that twin.

DNA Test Vs Cancer Screening

Meanwhile, Spiers is not yet close to finding out what their parents had done but meeting her actual brothers and sisters, both full and half-siblings, has enhanced her life. It bears noting, however, that a DNA test from sites like 23andMe is not a replacement for an actual cancer screening for genetics.

A big percentage of women who carry or inherit the BRCA gene mutation is likely to develop same cancer by 17 to 44 percent. Thus, it's still important to get this cancer screening if someone in the family has had breast cancer. Dr. Rebecca Arend said that a BRCA mutation prevents cells from repairing and when cells are not repaired the right way, it raises the person's risk for developing cancer.