Julia Bradbury on lifestyle change and going teetotal after cancer diagnosis
The presenter revealed in 2021 that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and later underwent a mastectomy.
Julia Bradbury said she has become more focused on her health than she has ever been after “death looked her in the eyes”.
The 54-year-old TV presenter revealed in 2021 that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and later underwent a mastectomy during which her breast plus two lymph glands were removed before reconstruction took place.
Bradbury has since stopped drinking alcohol and has changed the priorities in her life, but revealed she has received some pushback on social media from sharing her approach.
She told The Times Weekend magazine: “I wasn’t close to death, but death looked me in the eyes. So I am more focused on my health than I ever have been.
“I don’t drink, I eat a healthy diet and exercise every day.
“When I came home from my mastectomy, I promised I would spend time outside every day, and that is my mantra, however poor it might be in this shitty winter.”
Bradbury, who has since been given the all-clear, said a doctor recently helped her reframe how she utilises her energy.
She recalled: “He said, ‘This drive that you have – you’re running on a credit card. You can push through all sorts of things. But is that the best thing for you?’.
“I realised you don’t have to win every race. You don’t have to overcome everything. I don’t want to max out the credit card.”
The presenter previously discussed her experience in an ITV documentary, Julia Bradbury: Breast Cancer And Me, which followed her as she came to terms with her diagnosis and prepared to undergo her single mastectomy.
She also regularly shares her wellness and fitness tips with her more than 270,000 Instagram followers.
However, she revealed she has had pushback from people saying, “I was healthy, I go to the gym, I got cancer, and now its metastasised and I’ve got secondary cancer. So are you blaming me for my illness?”.
Responding to the accusations, she added: “No. All I’m saying is, this is what I went through. It was a wake-up call, and it made me look at life differently.
“It made me prioritise my sleep, emotional health, and give more time to my loved ones.
“If I drink more than four units of alcohol a week, my risk of reoccurrence goes up by 28%. But people find me giving up drinking infuriating.”
Bradbury, who has a 13-year-old son Zephyr, and nine-year-old twins Xanthe and Zena, said having children later in life has caused her to not be as “patient” as she feels she should be at times after becoming more set in her own ways.
“People think that after you’ve got a cancer diagnosis, you become this beautiful angel with a halo, and a super mum and do everything right”, she added.
“But no, you make the same mistakes. I lose my temper, and I can hear myself saying things that I can’t believe I’m saying.
“None of us know what we’re doing, really. We’re just doing our best. I know they do have lots of love. They are told that they’re loved every day.”
