My breast reconstruction after my mastectomy looked like a ‘plasticine boob’, says Countryfile’s Julia Bradbury

JULIA Bradbury has opened up about undergoing a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer last year.

The Countryfile presenter, 51, took part in an upcoming ITV programme which documented her journey.

In a new interview the brave star revealed exactly how she felt before and after the surgery.

She said: “At that point – and I think this is a moment that every woman who has had a mastectomy will share – I had never felt so lost, so out of control and so deeply sad.

“The shape of me, as I knew it when I looked in the mirror, was never going to be the same again.”

Discussing the moment she looked down at herself on the operating table and saw the felt-tip pen markings, Julia told magazine: “They were like something you see in the butchers.

“I felt like a piece of meat on a block.”

Julia confessed that after the operation it took her almost two months to be able to look at her reconstructed left boob.

She 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 and – I don’t want to upset my surgeon because he has done a brilliant job – it looked like a Plasticine boob. That was eight weeks post-mastectomy.”

Julia recently shared the last photo she took of her body before the operation.

She captioned it: “This is the last pic I took of myself before my mastectomy, to remove a 6cm tumour from my left breast.

“One of the best bits of advice I was given by my friend Heidi who’ has been through this, was to say goodbye & thank you to my breast.. for all the years of service & time spent together.

“Saying farewell & grieving for what we’ve lost is OK.”