• 5 months ago
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.
Transcript
00:00Putting anything into your body that's not really supposed to be there. There is always a risk and I'm not against other people doing that
00:06Just don't want it for myself
00:13Look as someone with one boob
00:15I'm constantly being told to just get a boob job just do this just do that and
00:21The word just makes it sound so easy
00:24Think a lot of people aren't aware of the risks of surgery
00:27Especially on your chest where your heart and your lungs are and a boob job
00:32Isn't the only option when it comes to dealing with something like this?
00:36You could have a boob job, which would be an implant. You could also have a reduction
00:40You could also have the muscle from the back taken to the front if you have the condition that I have which is called Poland
00:46Syndrome, which means the muscle on this side of my chest is deformed
00:49So there isn't just boob jobs, but all of these options come with their own risks any surgery does
00:56So the risks of a breast implant is something called breast implant illness
01:00where the body can reject this foreign object being inside your body and make you very sick and
01:05Because of the chest muscle deformity that I have I've spoken to women that had an implant put on top of that muscle and it would
01:11not sit properly on top of where it was supposed to be and it flipped and ruptured and had to be removed and
01:17Some implants only have a certain lifespan
01:20So you have to have them changed every so many years if I had an implant on this side
01:24I would also have to have an implant on the bigger side as well to make sure that they are the same size and shape
01:28I think the option with less risks would be to have the larger side removed to make it smaller so that it's the same size
01:35As this one but that isn't completely riskless either with any surgery you have a chance of infection
01:40You have a chance that your body won't be able to recover properly
01:43you have to take a lot of time off work and school to get over the fact that you've had a major surgery and you're
01:49Losing such a big part of your body a whole part of your skin is coming off
01:54So putting anything into your body that's not really supposed to be there
01:58There is always a risk and I'm not against other people doing that
02:01I absolutely understand that for some people this absolutely changes their life. Just don't want it for myself
02:13You

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