Julia Bradbury's heartache over post-mastectomy breasts as she faces ongoing cancer risk

express.co.uk:

Countryfile star Julia Bradbury has endured daunting moments since her diagnosis with breast cancer last summer and later undergoing a mastectomy.

During a new interview, Julia, 51, confessed that she hated seeing herself so "horribly damaged, battered and bruised", as she faces the possibility of the cancer returning.However Julia has been able to see the silver lining as she reflected on how far she had come.She now finds herself stripping off on TV for a powerful documentary addressing the impact of overcoming cancer and a mastectomy."It was always a career no, getting my breasts out on television," she joked, "but here I go!"Julia has had reconstructive work done to balance her breasts out after having tissue removed and, despite initial misgivings, she is now content with the result.The star said: "I [didn't want to see myself] so horribly damaged, bruised and battered." "I looked at it in the bedroom in my wardrobe mirror [two months after the surgery] and I don’t want to upset my surgeon, because he has done a brilliant job, [but] it looked like a plasticine boob," she admitted."[However] several weeks later, my mum looked again and said 'Jules, it is beautiful', and I realised how far I had come."She added that although she had lost a breast, she had still been able to keep her own nipple after having an implant fitted."I feel lucky and grateful every single day, and I have to learn to live with this risk, to accept the fragility of life, without it consuming me," she admitted to You magazine.In February, Julia addressed the heartbreaking possibility that her cancer could return.Surgeons had discovered "micro-invasions" of cancerous cells leaching out of her milk duct and back into her breast tissue.Genetic.