Credit: SWNS / Rebecca Butcher
A woman born with a rare condition which means she only has "one breast" turned down a free NHS boob job and is now a model.
Rebecca Butcher, 26, was offered the chance to have a breast implant when she was just 16 - so both her breasts could be the same size.
She turned down the surgery and instead choses to celebrate her difference.
Her right breast is a DD size cup, while her left is an A cup.
Her condition – Poland syndrome - is a birth defect which causes an underdeveloped chest muscle on one side of the body and affects around one in 20,000 people.
Rebecca was officially diagnosed with it aged 20 after she had an ultrasound scan to look at her chest muscle but had been convinced of her condition since she was 16.
A woman born with a rare condition which means she only has "one breast" turned down a free NHS boob job and is now a model.
Rebecca Butcher, 26, was offered the chance to have a breast implant when she was just 16 - so both her breasts could be the same size.
She turned down the surgery and instead choses to celebrate her difference.
Her right breast is a DD size cup, while her left is an A cup.
Her condition – Poland syndrome - is a birth defect which causes an underdeveloped chest muscle on one side of the body and affects around one in 20,000 people.
Rebecca was officially diagnosed with it aged 20 after she had an ultrasound scan to look at her chest muscle but had been convinced of her condition since she was 16.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Putting anything into your body that's not really supposed to be there, there is always a risk.
00:04 And I'm not against other people doing that, I just don't want it for myself.
00:07 Look, as someone with one boob, I'm constantly being told to just get a boob job.
00:19 Just do this. Just do that. And the word "just" makes it sound so easy.
00:24 I think a lot of people aren't aware of the risks of surgery, especially on your chest,
00:29 where your heart and your lungs are. And a boob job isn't the only option when it comes to dealing
00:35 with something like this. You could have a boob job, which would be an implant. You could also
00:39 have a reduction. You could also have the muscle from the back taken to the front, if you have the
00:43 condition that I have, which is called Poland Syndrome, which means the muscle on this side of
00:48 my chest is deformed. So there isn't just boob jobs, but all of these options come with their
00:54 own risks. Any surgery does. So the risks of a breast implant is something called breast implant
01:00 illness, where the body can reject this foreign object being inside your body and make you very
01:05 sick. And because of the chest muscle deformity that I have, I've spoken to women that had an
01:09 implant put on top of that muscle, and it would not sit properly on top of where it was supposed
01:14 to be, and it flipped and ruptured and had to be removed. And some implants only have a certain
01:19 lifespan, so you have to have them changed every so many years. If I had an implant on this side,
01:24 I would also have to have an implant on the bigger side as well to make sure that they are the same
01:27 size and shape. I think the option with less risks would be to have the larger side removed to make
01:33 it smaller so that it's the same size as this one. But that isn't completely riskless either. With
01:38 any surgery, you have a chance of infection, you have a chance that your body won't be able to
01:42 recover properly, you have to take a lot of time off work and school to get over the fact that
01:47 you've had a major surgery and you're losing such a big part of your body, a whole part of your skin
01:53 is coming off. So putting anything into your body that's not really supposed to be there,
01:58 there is always a risk. And I'm not against other people doing that, I absolutely understand that
02:02 for some people this absolutely changes their life. I just don't want it for myself.
02:06 [Music]
02:16 (wind whooshing)
02:19 [BLANK_AUDIO]