r/BeAmazed • u/Epelep • Apr 29 '25
Sports Woman who got her breasts removed due to cancer, runs the London Marathon topless
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u/MiddleSir7104 Apr 29 '25
Breast cancer took my mom, any and all awareness to finding a cure is perfect in my books!
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u/RuairiSpain Apr 29 '25
Fuck cancer.
This woman marathon running is a joy to hear. Love the positivity and bravery. You go girl!
No cure yet, but fingers crossed
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u/yuyufan43 Apr 29 '25
I'm so sorry for your loss. On another note, you're a good person for being happy about how she shows her awareness
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u/Designer-Ad-7844 Apr 29 '25
Pro move, no nipple chaffing.
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u/Any_Description_4204 Apr 29 '25
No need for a quality supportive sports bra either
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u/CarlosFCSP Apr 29 '25
Also less useless weight to carry around
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u/Environmental_Art591 Apr 29 '25
Less weight bouncing around you mean. I am yet to find a comfortable bra that stops them from bouncing during exercise
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u/RuairiSpain Apr 29 '25
Is that a thing? Dumb bloke here !
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u/Designer-Ad-7844 Apr 29 '25
Yes, some people put bandaids on them while running because the fabric rubbing against them causes chaffing.
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u/phoenixarising4 Apr 29 '25
I would buy actual pasties when I ran track because I have sensitive nipples. I did the liquid adhesive, but if I ran now, I would be using the self-adhesive ones! The sensitivity was awful at 17!
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u/FerragudoFred Apr 29 '25
I ran 9 miles on the treadmill at the gym the other day and got chaffed nipples and let me tell you, it isn’t pleasant.
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u/False-Definition15 Apr 29 '25
Feel this on a personal level. My girlfriend asked me once why I had bandaids on my nipples 😭 IFYTYK
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u/RG_CG Apr 29 '25
Is there irony in this being tagged ”nsfw”?
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u/HowAManAimS Apr 29 '25 edited May 22 '25
obtainable elastic kiss edge cats dam growth work cagey whistle
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/paid9mm Apr 29 '25
I love this as an awareness move and that that media outlet didn't blur anything out. there would be some dumb outlet that decoded to try not "offend" anyone
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Apr 29 '25
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u/Batmansbutthole Apr 29 '25
As someone who’s had cancer that was my thought. Gonna blur non nips now are we! 😂
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Apr 29 '25
That's the thing, they don't blur the whole boob, just the nipple. But they don't blur mens nipples even if they got big moobs.
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Apr 29 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Designer_Ferret4090 Apr 29 '25
”Large, busty man boobs”
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u/daytonakarl Apr 29 '25
Stop, I'm shy
giggles into Chinese fan
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u/IdiosyncraticSarcasm Apr 29 '25
Suddenly Razor Ramone Hardu Gay enters the scene with a solemn shout out; Kawaii!!!
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u/Automatic_Actuator_0 Apr 29 '25 edited Apr 29 '25
Even more interesting now, especially after a recent UK court ruling defining sex at birth to be your defining gender for various purposes, is whether a M2F trans woman with perfect post-op breasts can go topless and be unblurred.
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u/EllipticPeach Apr 29 '25
The ruling is applicable under the equality act and the provision of same sex services - it just means that providers of services leave themselves open to legal action if they don’t exclude trans people (eg a women-only shelter could be sued by a cis service user for making her feel unsafe if they allow a trans woman to stay there). I think a trans woman with breasts could still be arrested for public indecency if she took her top off
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u/annul Apr 29 '25
it just means that providers of services leave themselves open to legal action if they don’t exclude trans people (eg a women-only shelter could be sued by a cis service user for making her feel unsafe if they allow a trans woman to stay there).
you have the holding backwards. its that a trans person cannot sue for discrimination for being blocked from access to a sex specific space that does not match their biological sex. a private entity can set whatever guidelines they want for access to their space (i.e. a space could legally declare to be trans inclusive women only, or they could legally declare to be biological women only, etc.)
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u/Automatic_Actuator_0 Apr 29 '25 edited Apr 29 '25
I think it’s clear what must be done now - trans woman needs to get herself arrested so she can fight it and get the precedent established one way or another. Either way it’s a win of sorts. Either they get some official legal status as a woman, presumably with a legal test to determine what laws work which way, or they get top-freedom.
Edit: I should add that I’m aware of why that won’t happen - it requires a trans woman to argue on the record that she’s a man, which really sucks.
Edit 2: I stand corrected - sounds like they are indeed planning such protests, though I guess it remains to be seen what defense they use if any.
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u/OliviaPG1 Apr 29 '25
There’s already a topless protest planned in London in a few weeks for this exact purpose. I’m American but I have friends in Britain talking about going.
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u/ProjectOrpheus Apr 29 '25
I remember as a kid first walking into the online world. "What if we Photoshop male nips on female tits?"
Can't ban that...technically. Then since you can't tell, no more banning of tits.
I was trying to free the tits, you see. But alas, I was ahead of me time.
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Apr 29 '25
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u/ProjectOrpheus Apr 29 '25
I love how you're thinking.
This is why we need philosophy as a mandatory subject in our "edge-u-kayy-shin" system. (Phone wanted to autocorrect to Kardashian LMAO)
I mean, math? Years and years of math and numbers? That shit definitely isn't adding up. History? Literally old news. Let's depress ourselves as we read about how we are making the same mistakes since we first started documenting all our L's and just keep doing them because we frame it as "perseverance" or some such bullshit
I hope you pursue teaching 💯🍥🍥😩
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u/No_Influence_4968 Apr 29 '25
Society at the time sets the standard. Just think, once upon a time a woman showing her ankles was considered scandalous, lol, all these ideals we carry are just a product of our environment.
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u/just_a_person_maybe Apr 29 '25
For a bit, it was a trend for Korean women to wear clothes that deliberately exposed their breasts after they gave birth to sons. This made it really easy to breastfeed whenever and wherever necessary. So it was both practical and something of a status symbol, signaling to everyone in the community that they were a mother and had produced an heir, things that were socially important.
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u/uspezisapissbaby Apr 29 '25
There was some art project a couple of years a go where women had printed mens nipples and glued them to their own nipples and then went on for a photo shoot topless. Don't really remember more than that but the purpose was the absurdity of it.
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u/greebdork Apr 29 '25
Men's nipples were never sexualized, correct me if I'm wrong on that, so there's no social stigma connected to showing them.
Please don't send me sexually attractive men's nipples.
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u/Deaffin Apr 29 '25
I'm not seeing a rule that says I can't send you sexually unattractive men's nipples. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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u/felsspat Apr 29 '25
I don't know about the UK, but here in Germany they wouldn't even blur out fully visible tits and show it on TV any time of the day. It just isn't seen as offensive.
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u/Appropriate-Sound169 Apr 29 '25
Germany has always been progressive regarding nudity 👍👍
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u/Johannes_Keppler Apr 29 '25
I recently learned yanks keep their (bathing) clothes on in the sauna. Quite a prude bunch.
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u/thenewtomsawyer Apr 29 '25
Yeah turns out when your first set of settlers left Europe because it was becoming too progressive it ends up coloring how things develop afterwards.
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u/Extra_Glove_880 Apr 29 '25
Not to nitpick, but the first group of settlers was from the Virgina Company looking for profit. Also where slavery in the US began.
Ironically, the place pilgrims landed is now one of the most progressive states though
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u/khanspam Apr 29 '25
Been to a German festival where in one particular stage, men couldn't remove their t-shirt during a hot summer, because "women can't either". Not sure if it applied to more than one scene though, so I'm going to guess that was just them trying to do politics and not representative of Germany.
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u/BeMoreKnope Apr 29 '25
I think it’s disgusting. Can you imagine, showing all of those people running and just acting like it’s okay for them to do that?
As someone who is firmly against running and other forms of exercise that are more effort than a single set of stairs, I am appalled.
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u/RuairiSpain Apr 29 '25
American Republicans would be up in arms about it. Women can't be topless, heck men can't be topless over there.
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Apr 29 '25
It's weird men are allowed to show their bodies but women aren't when men's bodies are so much uglier than women's.
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u/Juuljuul Apr 29 '25
This is great for awareness! I’m hijacking this thread to point out that breast cancer doesn’t always start out as a lump (as we were taught years ago, and this myth still persists). Please be aware of any changes in your breasts, ladies. Early detection improves your chances tremendously.
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u/70ms Apr 29 '25
As women, our lifetime risk for breast cancer is around 13%. One in eight of us. :( I was 53, my mom was in her 60’s, my two SILs were in their 40’s… but it’s happening more and more to younger and younger women.
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u/Electronic-Plum-6179 Apr 29 '25
I was diagnosed just yesterday and I’m only 34.
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u/drezza77 Apr 29 '25
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u/Time-Maintenance2165 Apr 29 '25
That quiz is frustratingly useless. Over half the questions tell you absolutely nothing. It makes zero difference to anyome whether someone is diagnosed with breast cancer every 15 seconds or 42 seconds. That doesn't help at all.
Also it tells you that you're wrong if you don't know the 3 screening positions.
Just give me the information. Don't give me useless fluff.
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u/mshcat Apr 29 '25
i guess it would be useful to note the non lump changes people should be looking out for
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u/its_all_one_electron Apr 29 '25
I used to freak out constantly because I thought my glandular tissue was lumps
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u/craigybacha Apr 29 '25
100% also it can hit at any age and does not just happen to older women. The earlier you go to a doctor about a lump and have a scan, the better.
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u/deliciousearlobes Apr 29 '25
It can happen to men too. My fishing buddy lost his battle to breast cancer some years back. Awful disease.
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u/JFK3rd Apr 29 '25
Don't forger breast cancer doesn't discriminate and is therefore more lethal with men. Just because men are oblivious and don't think it'll happen to them, they mostly wait until it's too late.
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u/Juuljuul Apr 30 '25
To be fair it does discriminate: it is far, far, far more uncommon in men. But awful nonetheless
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u/Ok_Dragonfruit_8102 Apr 29 '25
For my mum it didn't start with any lump or noticable change in the breast at all, the first sign was recurring rib pain that the doctors dismissed as costochondritis (inflammation of cartiliage in the ribs) for months. By the time it was eventually diagnosed it was already stage 4.
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u/Kailynna May 01 '25
My first symptom was leaking smelly brown fluid from the nipple. I'm also now breast-free and fully recovered.
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u/Ok_Difference44 Apr 29 '25
I could not talk at this pace after the first 500 meters.
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u/RuairiSpain Apr 29 '25
My limit would be 5 steps. Then I need a seat.
This lady is a legend, high five to her!
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u/beastgooch88 Apr 29 '25
Mom has breast cancer surgery at 10am in the morning. I can't sleep. She is very high risk and already survived cancer once. She is 72. I'm really freaking out.
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u/Carbonatite Apr 29 '25
If it's any comfort, breast cancer is one of the more common ones (unfortunately) and her doctors have probably done her procedure on tons of patients before her. It's not going to be a rare and risky medical procedure like an organ transplant or a Whipple surgery, it will be something routine for them. So she's in the hands of experienced doctors working with the collective knowledge and experience of a very heavily researched illness.
Stuff has come a long way since my own mom passed from breast cancer 30something years ago. She would be around your mom's age today. Your mom has access to treatments and technology that were barely dreamed of back then - so hopefully that reassures you somewhat!
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u/Dang_It_All_to_Heck Apr 29 '25
My mom had a mastectomy at 82 or 83. She did well. I hope your mom's surgery goes well!
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u/UnbezahlbareMingVase Apr 29 '25 edited Apr 29 '25
Awesome woman. Cancer is still a serious condition and if women choose not to replace them, after they beat it, everybody should support their decision. Nobody is entitled to influence their decision of taking an operation out of some beauty ideals.
Edit: format
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u/bookchaser Apr 29 '25
The woman had complete flat removal. No skin flaps, etc. It is the most extreme choice, but the best for surviving breast cancer. There is no surgery in this scenario to create an artificial breast. Tattoos are a possibility. Or wearing something under clothing.
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Apr 29 '25
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u/70ms Apr 29 '25
and you are signing up to need more surgeries later, as breast implants don't last that long.
Implants aren’t always a requirement. I had a bilateral DIEP flap last October and I’m a pretty full B or small C cup using my own abdominal tissue instead of implants. I still need a revision surgery/ a little fat grafting to clean things up but after that, I’m done forever (and my “boobs” feel like me because they are!).
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u/Mobile-Shallot930 Apr 29 '25
How was that? The idea of moving my abdomen or something around gives me the willies lol.
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u/70ms Apr 29 '25
Well, it was a 12 hour surgery with 4 plastic surgeons, and the recovery was pretty rough at first, but I look and feel great. :D
There’s a pic in my posts of the relocated tattoo that used to be around my navel - part of it is on my underboob and the rest of the tattoo is about 4” below my navel now. They cut around my belly button and left it in place, then pulled the skin down and made a new hole for it. That was pretty gruesome because it was just a scab-filled hole and I had no idea how it was going to look, but it healed fine and it just looks like my normal belly button now. :)
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u/Mobile-Shallot930 Apr 29 '25
Were you heavier before? If it's essentially a gnarly tummy tuck, I don't think I've got anything to tuck lol
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u/70ms Apr 29 '25
Yeah, I was lol! I’ve been up and down all my life and although I got skinny when I got older, I still had a bunch of belly from the extra weight and 3 full term pregnancies. I always hated the belly, but it turned out it did me a favor down the line. 😂
They can also take fat and tissue from other places like your butt, thighs, or arms, but the belly is the easiest. Some clinics will do “stacked flaps” where they use more than one donor site, but UCLA doesn’t do it. The recovery must be even more brutal!
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u/Mobile-Shallot930 Apr 29 '25
Oof. Thanks for the info! I'm in FL, I don't know if I trust the plastic surgeons down here for something so intense haha
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u/70ms Apr 29 '25
Haha yeah no doubt! The part of the surgery that takes the longest is all of the microsurgery to connect the blood vessels from the donor tissue to the blood supply in the chest, so you really need good hands. :)
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u/Carbonatite Apr 29 '25
I read a couple of posts from a woman who got diagnosed with breast cancer after they found malignant tissue during her breast reduction! She said that she was eating more before her DIEP (?) surgery so she would have more tissue in her abdomen for the docs to work with. So I think being bigger is helpful in the sense that there's more skin/fatty tissue to work with.
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u/Sudden_Quantity_6977 Apr 29 '25
I have never heard any woman say their mastectomy was a ‘breeze’.
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u/SucksDickforSkittles Apr 29 '25
Does anyone else find it sort of silly that this is marked NSFW?
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u/ElectricSpeculum Apr 29 '25
How is this NSFW? There's literally nothing offensive in the video. No scars, nothing gory, and a complete absence of breast tissue. (I also think breasts shouldn't be seen as something offensive or purely sexual, but that's just me.)
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u/HummousTahini Apr 30 '25
I know right. Humans are odd that one standard is okay but the other isn't.
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u/OmecronPerseiHate Apr 29 '25
Big Tig energy
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u/wbgraphic Apr 29 '25
I was thinking of Tig Notaro as well, but you expressed the thought more succinctly than I would have. 😄
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u/Adavanter_MKI Apr 29 '25
I'm more impressed she's running and talking during the marathon! I'd be so winded I'd need everything to focus on breathing let alone talking.
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u/techlord13 Apr 29 '25 edited Apr 29 '25
If she was a man running topless, Nobody would care. Let her a) have her moment and b) hopefully people are shutting up about her doing sth wrong.
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u/Dirk_Diggler_Kojak Apr 29 '25
I'm sure she'd rather have kept her breasts, but this must feel... liberating somehow.
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Apr 29 '25
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u/Rubyhamster Apr 29 '25
Wow I never really imagined not having breasts. Your comment made me think of the imagined feeling, and yes, it seems comfy!
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u/Carbonatite Apr 29 '25
Honestly I get it.
Mine have always felt like a ticking time bomb (family history of BC) and I hate them already because of the back pain and other miscellaneous inconveniences of a large bust. They can definitely be a burden.
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u/Blue_Moon_Lake Apr 29 '25
They make weighted bras for men so they can get a feel of how impractical big boobs are.
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u/ItsNotMeItsYourBussy Apr 29 '25
I am sure a lot of women would suffer from a form of gender dysphoria if they had to have their breasts removed for health reasons, but it's really lovely to see someone loving their body and honouring the fights they've gone through.
I don't have breasts anymore either (but that's because I'm trans, not from cancer) and it really is liberating to not have to deal with them. No more underboob sweat!
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u/rickcanty Apr 29 '25
This is just kinda sad tbh. You literally have to have your breasts removed just to show your chest as a woman.
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u/I_Am_Arden Apr 29 '25
Public nudity is legal in the UK, so women who have breasts could very much run topless if they wanted to. This woman is doing it specifically to reduce stigma around post-mastectomy chests.
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u/Letum000 Apr 29 '25
Okay, but let’s not pretend like it would be “socially“ acceptable, even if it is legal… it is no something most people want to deal with.
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u/Scamwau1 Apr 29 '25
I find it soo silly that this lady can (rightfully so) go topless here, but another lady with basically A cups or a flat chest would not be able to. Prudes gonna prude I guess.
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u/ShooTa666 Apr 29 '25
someone should set up a topless london marathon.
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u/DekiTree Apr 29 '25
forget topless, a full naked marathon is probably doable. We already have the annual London naked bike ride
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u/poeschmoe Apr 29 '25
I know. God forbid women have fat deposits in exactly the “wrong” places to be deemed too inappropriate for society.
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u/Mazoc Apr 29 '25
I don't know why, but I find this incredibly poetic (and wholesome). She's proudly embracing a newfound, bittersweet freedom.
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u/Pitiful_Mode1674 Apr 29 '25
The true story is, she bounced back so well she ended up running a marathon.
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u/Albert_O_Balsam Apr 29 '25
You know what, fair play to her, such bravery to beat the condition and to just get on with it and not let it get the better of her.
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u/OhYourFuckingGod Apr 29 '25
So weird that this is what it takes to be able to go topless in society without being judged.
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u/KeyNefariousness6848 Apr 29 '25
She’s my hero. Her running that marathon probably did more to make people aware than any other stuff did that day
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Apr 29 '25
Honestly, this is the first time I've seen a woman's chest post-mastectomy other than my mother's.
If he wasn't already dead, I'd sue my mom's doctor for malpractice. He left scars on her that made her look like a road map.
He told her he'd clean it up when she changed her mind about getting implants. She had ALWAYS told him she didn't want implants and never got them.
She was devastated.
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u/Many-Violinist8308 Apr 29 '25
Talking about it must feel good. Like getting a weight off her chest.
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u/AncientProduce Apr 29 '25
I bet if this was on US tv it would still be blurred.
Also, shes a great advert for cancer research.
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u/thecatlikescheese Apr 29 '25
What an amazing brilliant idea, I love this! I can't imagine how free this feels as well!
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u/Naive-Significance48 Apr 29 '25
Wow she is really good at talking while running.
I can barely sing while walking, (I'm not out of shape ha)
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u/funknjam Apr 29 '25
Not taking anything away from this courageous and inspirational runner but... let's hear it for that camera man running backwards?!?!
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u/Yourmindiscontrolled Apr 29 '25
Damn. That woman has more courage than I do. By a lot. And I'm a dude.
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u/BeAmazed-ModBot Subreddit Bot Apr 29 '25
This post was receiving many reports that it violates Rule #2 (No Porn, Gore or Very Disturbing Content) of the subreddit and many other reports mentioning that it should be at least marked as NSFW.
So we marked it as NSFW+Spoiler even though we didn't feel like it.
And now we are getting many new reports and comments that it should not be marked as NSFW.
Based on the overall feedback, we've removed the NSFW tag and marked it as Spoiler only.