Countryfile's Julia Bradbury reveals her breast cancer diagnosis

"My plan is to come through it and out the other side and I hope to be able to do that bravely enough so that women who are scared to get tested, to get a diagnosis, go ahead. I want to be able to give them a wave and say, ‘Look, it’s horrible, but you can do it too,’" she told the publication.

Bradbury added that while her tumour is a significant size, she may not need chemotherapy and is unlikely to need a skin graft during her reconstructive surgery.

"It is quite good on the scale on cancers," she said. "But as with all tumours, until you are in there you never know."

On encouraging other women to check their breasts for signs of cancer, the 51-year-old said: "We must, must, must check ourselves and seek help. Being scared of a diagnosis could be the thing which kills you.

"So learn what to look for and check, check, check. Doctors are experts but only you can press a lump, know how it feels and think you should do something about it.

"What would have happened if I hadn't ticked 'book a mammogram' off my to-do list that day? What if I hadn't gone to the appointment I thought I should cancel? Would I be in the next stage, with an invasive cancer? I don't know.

"As it is I am going to lose my breast. I trust that one day I will look down on it and think that was the fight of my life and I have the ultimate battle scar to prove it."

The Dublin-born presenter began her broadcasting career in 1995 and went on to work for GMTV, Channel 5's Exclusive!, Watchdog, Are We Being Served? and Planet Earth Live.

Most recently, she co-hosted ITV's For the Love of Britain and fronted Cornwall and Devon walks with Julia Bradbury.

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