Julia Bradbury makes final live TV appearance ahead of her mastectomy

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Julia Bradbury made her final live TV appearance before she undergoes a mastectomy following her breast cancer diagnosis on Thursday’s This Morning.  

The Countryfile star, 51, spoke to hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield about her upcoming procedure and said she got the call about the date while she was working on a forest segment for the ITV show. 

Phillip said: ‘You got that call whilst you were doing the forest films for us?’

Julia replied: ‘Yes. And it wasn’t that I didn’t want to come and see you [at that time] in the studio and talk about it, it’s that I wanted to [continue filming] and be in the woodlands and finish that series of films for you, because they are really important for people to feel the love for nature.’

Explaining how this is the last live TV before her operation, Julia added, ‘Yes, this is my last live TV before the op so I will see you on the other side.’

Holly replied: ‘We’re sending you so much love and they are beautiful films so thank you very much.’ 

The entire show was presented from a multi acre forest which ITV purchased earlier this year to encourage viewers to think differently towards nature as well as to show how the series’ responsibility for the woodland will play a small but effective part in helping the planet.

Julia received her Covid booster jab on Monday ahead of an upcoming mastectomy operation following her devastating breast cancer diagnosis.

The presenter took to Instagram to share a clip of herself in the vaccine centre as she told her followers she would need to be ‘as safe as possible’ if she is to undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatments in the future.

She told how she had ‘weighed up the risks’ and that getting the jab was the ‘best thing’ to keep her and her loved ones safe.

She penned in the caption: ‘Not long until I have my operation & grateful for my booster vaccine. Do I love it? No… But I’ve weighed up the risks (before my breast cancer diagnosis & since) & for me & other people, the vax is the best thing to keep me, my loved ones & the people I come into contact with safe. 

‘Obviously my recent cancer diagnosis has influenced my thought process, but if I need chemo/radiation I’m going to need to be as safe as possible from #COVID19.

‘Professor Sharon Peacock the executive director of the Covid-19 UK Genomics Consortium has just said in a recent interview: 

”’If we don’t vaccinate as many people (as possible around the world) & there is uncontrolled transmission & infection, then that is the right training ground for the virus”.’

In the clip she added: ‘I feel very grateful I’ve been able to have it. Thank you NHS’, as she gave a thumbs up.

Julia recently broke down in tears as she spoke of her upcoming operation during an appearance on Woman’s Hour.

‘Very quickly your life changes and there is this glimmer that the first thing you think about is death and the worst possible scenario’, she said.

The journalist – who has children Zeph, 10, and twins Zena and Xanthe, six, with husband Gerard Cunningham – found a lump in her breast last year which proved to be a benign cluster of cysts.

She had to have another mammogram this year and though that didn’t return anything unusual, doctors found a shadow at her follow-up appointment.

Speaking of the first signs, Julia said: ‘About a year ago I noticed a lump in my breast. I was away on a work trip and then I came back and we went into lockdown.

‘I admit I was a little bit sloppy. It took me a month until I spoke to my GP, who I’ve known since I was 18.

‘Fast-forward a year I still had a lump, and I had something called micro cysts.

‘I was told to keep an eye on them which I did. I went for my follow mammogram which I insisted on having. I told them I had this pain that I could feel in my lump.’

‘It wasn’t until the third physical examination that a doctor discovered a shadow which turned out to be a ‘tiny lump’.

Julia needed to have a mammogram right away. ‘Within minutes I was having a biopsy, that’s when I knew I was on a different path,’ she said.

‘That was the first moment I felt sadness and fear because everything just changed so quickly, but of course that’s what happens with cancer.’

Breaking down in tears, the presenter said: ‘Anybody who has been through this will know that you can’t help feel fear and I’m somebody who is very positive and I’m taking it one step at a time. Human instinct.

‘The first thing I thought about was my children.’

Emma Barnett went on to ask how Julia went about how she and her husband Gerard shared her diagnosis with their two children.

‘We waited to tell the children because they were about to start school, we wanted to get them in a steady place,’ she said.

‘It was the hardest conversation that I’ve ever had to have in my life. I really had to steel myself to be strong but show that you’re vulnerable as well.

‘One of my little girls said: “Can I still hug you mummy?” and I said “of course you can, I’ll need your hugs more than ever”.’

The Dublin-born star admitted her brain ‘started to explode’ when she was given the devastating diagnosis and she’s now preparing to undergo a mastectomy to remove her left breast next month, while surgeons will also remove tissue from her lymph nodes to establish whether the cancer has spread.

She said: ‘My surgery is booked for October, obviously it’s a huge thing for women. To lose a breast is a massive trauma to our emotional state.’

Meanwhile Phillip Schofield sent out his well wishes to Julia on This Morning.

Phil said: ‘Everyone here at This Morning sends their love. Lots of love to you Julia.’

The former Watchdog host admitted her brain ‘started to explode’ when she was given the devastating diagnosis and she’s now preparing to undergo a mastectomy to remove her left breast next month, while surgeons will also remove tissue from her lymph nodes to establish whether the cancer has spread.

Although Julia has been told her ‘sizeable tumour’ could be ‘trouble to treat’ because of where it is positioned, she is hopeful that it’s been caught early enough to treat.

She told Mail On Sunday: ‘I have to hope I have caught mine early enough.

‘A mastectomy is a shattering thing to go through but it means that I am going to live and be here for my children.’

But the presenter is trying not to look too far into the future and is simply focused on the next step of her treatment.

She said: ‘Cancer has so many points, the diagnosis seems like everything, but it isn’t. It puts you on a pathway and you have to navigate that while holding back your emotions so you are not overwhelmed all the time.

‘Right now I’m simply focused on having surgery because I don’t know how I am going to be, if I will have more cancer to deal with, how I will cope with recovery, how life will feel afterwards.’

Call the Macmillan Support Line on 0808 808 00 00 for more information.