When Tina Connolly and Julie Torrey attend tonight's premiere of the movie ‘Decoding Annie Parker', they'll be celebrating the fact they've faced some pretty big odds together.

The pair are among the estimated 0.002 per cent of the population who carry a BRCA gene mutation.

Bosom buddies Julie Torrey (left) and Tina Connolly have taken a pre-emptive strike against cancer.

This gave them roughly a 56 per cent chance of developing breast cancer, but pre-emptive surgery means their futures are now much brighter.

‘Decoding Annie Parker' focuses on the real-life story of how the mutations were uncovered by Dr Mary-Claire King – as seen through the eyes of a woman named Annie Parker, as she struggles with a relentless family history of breast cancer.

The movie's premiere, at Rialto cinemas, is being hosted by The Gift of Knowledge – a charity supporting women facing hereditary breast and ovarian cancer risks like BRCA.

It's a service Julie is passionate about, and she now serves as the national coordinator and facilitates the local support group.

Tina and Julie met while they were contemplating their risk-reducing options. Both eventually opted for publicly-funded mastectomies and reconstructions, but reject the notion they had ‘boob jobs'.

'Good cosmetic results can be achieved, but it's not guaranteed,” says Julie. 'The alternative was having six-monthly screening for the rest of my life to try and catch any cancer while it was in its early stages.

'BRCA cancer tends to be aggressive and I wanted better odds of watching my kids grow up.”

For details and tickets for the ‘Tauranga Decoding Annie Parker' event visit: www.giftofknowledge.co.nz/Get-Along/