JULIA Bradbury has revealed how her devastating cancer diagnosis saved her life – as she recalled how Celeb Masterchef left her frozen in fear.
Julia, 54, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 and had a mastectomy in the same year.
Julia Bradbury has revealed how her cancer saved her life[/caption]
Julia had a mastectomy after her diagnosis in 2021[/caption]
“I thought I was relatively healthy, I wasn’t leading a healthy day by day life,” said Julia[/caption]
The former GMTV star said the first thing she did was ditch the booze after the shock diagnosis.
Now, in an exclusive interview with The Sun, Julia – who is now cancer-free – has said her cancer ended up saving her life.
She explained: “The reason I say cancer saved my life is because it was a moment and an opportunity for me to completely reassess my own health and my approach to health.
“And I’m not blaming myself for my cancer and I’m not blaming anybody for their cancer.
“But what I will say is in my instance, in my situation, I was not, although I thought I was relatively healthy, I wasn’t leading a healthy day by day life.
“Sleep wasn’t a priority for me because in my younger days of my, you know, when I was starting out in my career, I mean, look, my first job, I was basically doing shift work.”
Julia previously worked for ITV’s Lorraine, reporting on the latest showbiz news and covered US award ceremonies such as the Oscars.
“When I was talking to Lorraine, it was 11:30 at night and one o’clock in the morning.
“I was doing GMB back then too, and I’d stay up until two or three o’clock because you’re buzzing because you’ve been on live television. And then I’d sleep till whatever time it was and then get up and then start chasing people right down the red carpet again.”
Julia continued: “It was shift work and I was flying a lot. So I was crossing through different times. So sleep was not a priority for me. It wasn’t important to me.
“I definitely wasn’t getting enough sleep. And I definitely wasn’t getting enough.”
Julia added that coupled with her diet and exercise, she left herself open to disease.
“So now I look at, I look back and I go, I’m not actually that surprised. I mean, my disease manifested itself as cancer. It could have been type 2 diabetes. It could have been three or four other things.”
In her two decades on air, Julia has fronted a number of high-profile series such as Countryfile, Watchdog and game show Take on Twisters.
She’s also appeared on Celebrity Masterchef, competing in its third series back in 2008.
Reflecting on her appearance in the TV kitchen she explained: “I have to say I was absolutely petrified and I’ve always say no to things like celebrity question time and because I feel that I’m going to clam up and I’m going to forget and I’ll forget everything.
“Even if you ask me like the capital of the Italy, I won’t be able to answer it because I’ll be so frozen in fear when I remember being there on that first show and they say ‘right you’ve got an hour and here are the ingredients’ and I remember it was duck.
“There was duck and there was something else and I just thought s***.”
The mum-of-three added: “I found the pressure too intense and I’m a reasonable cook, but you wouldn’t have known it.
“I mean, I looked like a disaster. It was like I’d never cooked a meal in my life.”
Julia Bradbury, TV presenter and charity campaigner, joined StreetVet, an award-winning homelessness charity, in Cornwall to vaccinate dogs of those experiencing homelessness, providing free-of-charge flea and tick protection for an entire year.
Latest TV Show Axings
All of the shows we’ve said goodbye to this year:
- The Masked Dancer, ITV
- Scarlett Moffatt’s Driving School, BBC
- The Lazarus Project, Sky
- Better, BBC
- Dance Monsters, Netflix
- Laura Whitmore & Oti Mabuse’s weekend shows, ITV
- Ross Kemp’s 72 Hours In…, Channel 5
- Rise and Fall, Channel 4
- Dead Boy Detectives, Netflix
- Celeb Cooking School, E4
- The Grand Tour, Prime Video
- James May’s Our Man In, Prime Video
- Ninja Warrior UK, ITV
- The Gathering, Channel 4
- Kaos, Netflix
