Julia Bradbury said that a common condition affecting almost half of all women over 40 made her breast cancer like “trying to see a snowball in a snowstorm”. It means doctors could not diagnose her for more than a year.
The 54-year-old TV presenter, who shared her breast cancer diagnosis in 2021, went to multiple consultations, but her tumour was missed twice due to having “dense breasts.” Speaking to Davina McCall about her cancer journey on the “Begin Again” podcast, Bradbury said: “One doctor told me if you have dense breasts and you have a mammogram, tumours are invisible because its like looking for a snowball in a snowstorm.
“It’s white on white – your whole breast looks whiter because of the tissue and so tumours show up white as well on mammograms.” She also had an ultrasound but nothing was picked up and the tumour was missed.
What are dense breasts and how to know if you have them:
You can only identify if you have dense breasts through a mammogram – where it becomes clear if you have dense breasts. Breasts are made up of fatty tissue, made up of fat cells, and dense tissue, made up of milk glands, ducts and supportive tissue. Those with dense breasts have more of the latter than the former.
According to The National Cancer Institute nearly half of all women over 40 have dense breasts. A report published in 2024 by NHS England said: “For those with very dense breast tissue, an MRI is a more sensitive test as it can provide a very detailed image of your breast.”
NHS inform also indicated that women with dense breasts “may have a higher risk of developing breast cancer because there are more cells that can become cancerous.” It added: “Dense breast tissue can also make a breast scan (mammogram) difficult to read, because it makes any lumps or areas of abnormal tissue harder to spot.”
Professor Tim Spector warns about foods that make up 60 percent of our diet
Horrifying new AI model reveals how humans will look in 30 years thanks to junk food
Bradbury’s cancer journey:
Bradbury first felt her lump in 2020. She said: “I was away on a job in Costa Rica… I was in a hotel and I was doing my breast checking, which I’ve always done very regularly and I found a lump. I looked in the mirror and I could see the lump in my skin.”
Following a zoom consultation with her doctor, he managed to get her a consultation despite the uncertainty of the beginning of covid . However, the doctors conclusion was wrong. She added: “I ended up having a mammogram and an ultrasound and the diagnosis was you have benign micro-cysts.
“My consultant said to me ‘if I were you I’d keep an eye on it – and even if you have to pay for it do another mammogram and ultrasound in a year’s time’.” So Bradbury waited a year, and at this point the lump had become “painful to touch.” However, yet again a mammogram came back as “nothing to worry about.”
However, Bradbury still saw her consultant, and amid a casual chat about her recent holiday he said he would “just give her an ultrasound” quickly before she left.
She said: “As he was looking at the ultrasound he took a sharp intake of breath and said ‘there’s something I don’t like’. The doctor saw a “tiny dark prick” which prompted a biopsy a few days later which was the first time she “shed a tear” because that was the first time she thought “this is serious.”
Then three days later she got her cancer diagnosis and then that was it she was “on the rollercoaster.” She said: “I was at home because I’d engineered it that way – I was meant to have been on location. I was outside in my garden.
“The doctor said it was a ‘big tumour’ and they might be able to do a lumpectomy but it would probably have to be a mastectomy. All in a couple of minutes it was like wow I’m going to lose a breast.”
Her husband then came home and she told him “I’m going to do whatever I have to do to get through this, if I have to lose a breast if I have to lose my hair, I’m going to do whatever I have to do to get through this.”