Hilary Murphy, a vivacious, voluptuous blonde, is showing me her breasts. Not without her clothes on, we are in sitting in the foyer of Jury's hotel, after all, but she's lifting her top, so that I can see how great they look. And I absolutely agree, they do look great. It's a very happy moment and Hilary's joy is innocent and infectious. There's a poignant reason why this is significant. Hilary has survived breast cancer and a mastectomy and has only recently had her breasts reconstructed. And she's so thrilled with the result that she wants all other women to know that there is not only hope, there's certain proof of the possibility of happiness, after you've had a breast removed. Some women will not choose to opt for reconstruction, but for Hilary, there was no other alternative in her mind.

'You have a crisis like cancer and you say to yourself "Okay, I'm going to deal with this, I'm going to survive this. But you look at yourself in the mirror and you have only one breast. And you feel unreal, it's against your own nature. It's not what one perceives as normal, is it? So to wake up in the morning and to find yourself with two breasts again is fantastic, it really is. I can't tell you."

Unless she takes her top off, I can't really see the full effect. Does it look normal? I ask, hesitantly.

'Oh yes, it looks normal and it feels normal. They took a flap from my stomach, to make it, which means that I had a tummy tuck as well!"
Hilary was only diagnosed with breast cancer in August, 2000, after noticing the lump, one night in bed. Being a nurse, she regularly examined herself, which may well have saved her life. Nine out of ten times, a lump in the breast will turn out not to be malignant, but the earlier cancer is detected the more options are available for treatment and for that reason, women are advised to ask their GP to examine them at least once a year and to teach them how to examine themselves. Breast cancer is most common in women over fifty, which is why those women are also advised to have regular breast screening.

"The next day I went to the doctor and he biopsied it and then I went to the surgeon and he biopsied it. And it was a tumour, under the lump. It was diagnosed from core biopsies, the ultrasound and the mamagram showed nothing. I was very lucky, it was diagnosed on the Wednesday and I had surgery on the Friday."
In some cases, with early diagnosis, only part of the breast need be removed, but Hilary's tumour was already quite large and a full mastectomy was necessary. Even though she is a nurse, Hilary was initially terrified.

"All you can think of is 'That's it, I'm dead. I had a Junior Cert, a Leaving Cert and a Confirmation, the following year and I thought 'Will I ever see my daughter confirmed?" And I stood for the entire service and cried."

The photographer arrives, and I ask if it's okay for him to listen to our conversation.
'Oh yes, breast cancer can affect men, too," Hilary says, generously. Which is true, although only one man will be diagnosed for every one hundred women. No one has yet managed to conclusively prove a cause for breast cancer, and even though certain risk factors have been identified, the majority of women diagnosed do not have a history of breast cancer in their families, nor do they have obvious risk factors, according to the American Cancer Society. Recovery rates are improving, though, particularly in younger women and this is being attributed to earlier detection. Hilary underwent a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which is not uncommon. But she found the radiotherapy traumatic.

"Initially, it nearly killed me,' she says. "The first day, when I said 'What do I do?" And the nurse said 'Strip to the waist.'

Why was it so bad?

"You feel so totally vulnerable, you've lost the breast, and you have no hair. That means no eyebrows and no eyelashes. Luckily enough, I met somebody very early on and she said "Start practicing with an eyebrow pencil, before the eyebrows go. All my hair went before the second session of Chemo. I would shake my head and clumps would fall out. And the pain in the crown of my head was horrendous, from the hair follicles. The oncologist told me to shave my head and then the pain went. When the hair comes back, it comes back with a vengeance, though. All over my legs!"

Was she very body-conscious, before the cancer?

"I was very heavy as a child and as a teenager, but I wore high shoes and dresses and I did have long blonde hair, so I used all of that. And if I was going out of an evening to a dinner dance or something, I would definitely wear a low-cut dress. So when this happened, I lost my femininity. And of course it has a huge effect on your sexuality. You just can't strip off anymore, or at least I couldn't. I'm not like other women, who can just say, "Okay, this is me with a scar. I didn't want anybody to see it, not even the doctor."

The final straw came when Hilary went to Spain with her husband, on holidays.
"I had given up trying to wear the prosthesis, because it was too hot. I used to fit prosthetics for patients, they work very well for some people, but mine was always uncomfortable. So I had taken the two cups out of my swimsuit and put them together, instead. And I was walking down the pier, with my husband and I turned to him and said 'I'm going to kill the next woman that produces two breasts in front of me! That holiday was a nightmare. And that was the deciding moment, I said I am not going to be this person anymore."

Having always been a feminine woman, Hilary wanted her shape back.
'I was always a girl that wore dresses, instead of trousers and tops. That's why the reconstruction was so brilliant, because now I can wear dresses. And I don't look so bad, do I? I don't even have to wear a bra. They tidied up the other one as well, it is wonderful, I can wear anything!"

Hilary reckons she's going to live another twenty five years, at least. And now that her life is back to normal, she's going back to work, too.

"I reckon that if I've got to two years, I can go another twenty five. I'm going to be like Jack Charlton's mother. She had a mastectomy thirty years before she died. And she used to wear a bag of birdseed. Thankfully I don't have to do that!'

Reach To Recovery- If you are worried about breast cancer, you can talk to a woman who has survived breast cancer by calling the Irish Cancer Helpline on 1800 200 700, toll free.