'Prostheses and bra make me feel like a woman again'

Paula Palmer was diagnosed with breast cancer more than 10 years ago

When Paula Palmer had a double mastectomy in 2014, she said she felt incomplete and didn't feel like a woman.

"There's a physical change in your body, there's a mental change in your head," she said.

More than a decade on from being diagnosed with breast cancer, Paula, 56, has prostheses and a properly fitted bra, which has made her feel "like a woman again".

She is now supporting an online petition calling for breast cancer patients to get a voucher to buy bras and prostheses after surgery.

'Grandma bras'

Paula, a mother of two and grandmother of three from Retford in Nottinghamshire, was initially given reconstructive surgery, but her body rejected the implants so she had to have them removed.

She said there was little choice in bras and prostheses offered by the NHS.

"The magazine the NHS provided, the bras in there were not sexy," she said.

"They were like grandma bras. I am a grandma but I didn't want to look like a grandma.

"I struggled for a long time with my mental health because I wanted to feel like a woman.

"I initially felt incomplete, I wanted to feel complete again."

Paula then had protheses and a bra fitted by Janice Holmes, who runs specialist lingerie shop, Janice Rose Lingerie, in Sutton-on-Trent.

She said this improved her mental health and confidence.

"I can be sexy and have no breasts," Paula, who says she is now cancer free, added.

Janice Holmes helped Paula find a suitable bra and prostheses

Janice started a petition on the government's website - but it and all other petitions were temporarily halted in the run-up to the general election.

She has started a new petition - asking ministers to introduce a nationwide post-surgery voucher scheme, to provide women with greater choice and dignity, similar to the existing NHS wig voucher programme.

"We think supporting this scheme would enable ladies to have more choice," the petition, which is open until 3 July, states.

"The bra and prosthesis voucher could then be presented to a professional bra fitter from an approved list of trained fitters capable of providing that expertise in a less clinical environment than in hospital."

Janice says there is not enough choice for women after breast cancer surgery

The NHS does provide prostheses, according to its website, and Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust runs a bra shop at Nottingham City Hospital for patients who have had surgery.

"Whether it be a double mastectomy or a lumpectomy or a single mastectomy, we're all totally different shapes," Janice said.

"Bras are fundamental if you lose your breast. So to actually have the right shaped bra would be fantastic for all ladies diagnosed with breast cancer."