Julia Bradbury has revealed that she felt like "a slab of meat" before undergoing her mastectomy.
In her new ITV documentary, Julia Bradbury: Breast Cancer and Me, the mum-of-three is seen in hospital just hours before her operation.
Julia, 51, 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.
She then popped her hospital gown on and 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.
"But for all the women who have gone through this and all the women who are going to go through this, this is the best possible thing and I know that this is to get me through the other side, so yeah, it's good," she said.
Elsewhere in the hour-long show, Julia explained: "I wanted to make this documentary to help spread awareness about this pervasive disease that now affects one in seven women.
"There was so much I didn’t know about breast cancer before my diagnosis and I hope this helps highlight the complexities of our individual cases, as well as exploring some of the incredible support networks that are out there and the new science and knowledge that continues to evolve.
"The impact of a cancer diagnosis goes way beyond the initial devastating news and the ripple effect on those close to you is crushing," she added.
Julia Bradbury: Breast Cancer and Me is available to watch on ITV Hub.
You can call the Macmillan Support Line on 0808 808 00 00 for more information.
