A 33-year-old mother of has posed topless showing off her scars after she underwent a double mastectomy.
Amanda Stewart shared the shots to inspire others after she had recovered from the surgery to cut her chances of getting breast cancer from 97% to 5% just the same way Hollywood star Angelina Jolie did in 2013.
Stewart who is married to Jamie,32, underwent the operation six weeks ago and had been sharing her progress on Facebook as she embarks on reconstructive surgery.
She wanted to show others that they could still be proud of their bodies with her topless photo has been viewed thousands of times since being posted on Facebook.
She said: “I may not be Angelina Jolie but I’m a normal person and think I look alright. I’m proud of the way I look and don’t feel I should hide anything.”
The early years worker even had before and after photo shoots and held a “bye bye boobies” night with her friends before having surgery.
Earlier this year Stewart, her sister Catherine Keeney, 28, and cousins Yvonne McKenna, 38, Suzanne McCormack, 39, and Laura McGuinness all made the decision to have the surgery after their mothers were all diagnosed with breast cancer, Mirror UK reports.
Because their family have had such bad history with this type of cancer, there was still a high risk.
She had her 34-36C breasts removed because she had a scare last year and couldn’t face the stress of having repeated mammograms.
She added: “I decided I couldn’t live with a lifetime of mammograms. They are very hard psychologically, wondering, ‘Is it going to reveal something this time?’
“We had eight known cases of breast cancer in our family – one of them a male. I was not waiting to see if conventional medicine or diets could save me. My breasts were a ticking timebomb.
“It’s not the easy option and not right for everyone but it was the best option for me.
“If I had developed cancer, I wouldn’t have been able to tell my children it would be OK, because it might not.
“I have lost two breasts and you do lose part of yourself.
“Doctors can’t prepare you for the emotions you are going to feel and I didn’t really have anything to refer to myself in terms of support.
“If you google mastectomy pictures, you see depressing images of people with sad faces looking down at their scars. It is quite scary.
“I wanted to get a more positive message out there. Of all the people who have viewed the pictures and followed the page, I have not had one negative response. It’s amazing.”
