29 August 2023 , 23:01
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Julia Bradbury has shared the moment she had tears rolling down her face ahead of her mastectomy operation.
The TV presenter, 53, who's best known for fronting shows like Countryfile and Watchdog, announced she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2021. The mother-of-three documented the experience of having her left breast removed as well as a six centimetre tumour and two lymph glands for an ITV documentary. She has candidly shared updates with her fans, including her mastectomy scar.
Julia has since shared her experience of going in to hospital for the operation in 2021. The presenter was filmed as she prepared for surgery, where she confessed to feeling like "a slab of meat". She shared: “I remember going into hospital for my mastectomy and crying when the general anaesthetic kicked in. The nurse said, ‘Think happy thoughts,’ and I replied, ‘I can’t think happy thoughts, I’m about to lose my left breast.’ The last thing I remember is teardrops running down my face.
The TV presenter felt like a 'slab of meat' ahead of her operation
Julia has opened up on the day of her surgery (David Venni)"After the operation, I was in a lot of pain and discomfort; I felt very discombobulated," she told Prima. In her documentary Julia Bradbury: Breast Cancer and Me, she decided to go topless in a few scenes to ensure the film was honest, raw, and showed the realities of what breast cancer can be. Sitting in her hospital room, she explained to camera: "So my surgeon has been in, he's marked up my body," before removing her hospital gown to show her bare torso which was covered in marker pen.
"So you feel like you've been tattooed a bit," Julia continued. "He explained that he just wants to get the symmetry right, and obviously when you lie down, everything looks different so he measured me again, he took photographs again, he checked where my marks from yesterday's procedure was because that's where they'll remove the Lymph node from... And yeah it's a weird process sort of being marked up, you do feel a bit like a slab of meat," the TV presenter added.
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She then admitted: "I've been pretty strong today. I don't know if I've cried yet today, and I've cried most days while this has been going on but today I'm just a little bit... just because it's overwhelming the whole thing." Earlier this year, Julia took to Instagram to share a photo of the scar underneath her breast and wrote "healing" near it.
She wrote in the post: "Isn't it amazing how the body heals? #breastcancer 16 months on." The caption also included a couple of lines from the poem Owning Our Scars by Teryn O'Brien. One of the lines read: "The choice we have is to wear our scars proudly". Sharing more in the, Julia wrote in the comments section: "I try and think that every thing I see is a reminder [that] I'm still here. Changed, scarred but here and grateful". And responding to a follower who thanked Julia for sharing updates throughout her journey, the presenter said: "I'll keep sharing what I learn along the way".
Appearing on This Morning last year, Julia explained how her "whole mantra" has changed since her diagnosis, adding: "My whole mantra for life has become 'be grateful for what you do have, not what you don’t have'. I have a breast, I have my nipple, but I don’t have sensation and because I’m naturally slim, I have what I call the mozzarella-cheese effect around – as my friend Ben Shephard and I call it, my pneumatic boob."
The October 2023 issue of Prima is now on sale.
If you have been affected by this story, advice and support can be found at Breast Cancer Support.