Julia Bradbury made an emotional appearance on This Morning on Thursday as she discussed her cancer diagnosis and treatment.
The 51-year-old Countryfile presenter revealed she had breast cancer in September last year and that she would be undergoing a mastectomy in order to remove a six centimetre tumour.
During her appearance on the ITV show to chat about about her new documentary Julia Bradbury: Breast Cancer And Me, Julia and host Holly Willoughby were both in tears at one point as she recalled the moment she had to tell her two young children about her illness.
“Telling your children you have cancer is the hardest thing you’ll ever have to do in your life,” Julia said.
“You also don’t know how much you tell them to be realistic, and how much do you need to protect them.. It’s a very tricky balance. I don’t think any parent really knows what to do.”
She added, “One of my children said, ‘Can I still hug you?’ and the other said, ’Is it contagious?” I never thought about either of those two things. You just don’t know what’s going through their mind.
“You do your best, but it’s a very difficult thing to navigate.”
The presenter and broadcaster also opened up about having a mastectomy, revealing it was a cathartic experience to say “goodbye” to her breast.
“First of all, I was calling them ‘masectomies’ instead of mastectomies… you just don’t understand what a mastectomy is - it’s the amputation of your breast.
“There are so many different versions of that, so some women can have reconstructions, some women can’t have reconstructions, some women like me can have immediate reconstruction because of the type of cancer I had.”
She added: “I have a silicone implant. The surgeon was able to save my own skin and nipple, which I’m very grateful for…. I said goodbye to my breast… my friend said the best advice she got from a doctor was to say goodbye to your breast. It was really helpful and cathartic.
“It’s [a mastectomy] a really traumatic thing and a brutal procedure… there is no nice way to treat cancer, it’s pretty horrible.”
After a clip from Julia’s documentary was played, a teary Holly said: “That got me.”
This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV.