A mum who had a mastectomy is set to become the first women to run the London Marathon topless.<br /><br />Louise Butcher, 50, often jogs around Braunton, Devon, with her top half uncovered to raise awareness for mastectomy scars and flat closure surgery after a cancer operation in 2022.<br /><br />The charity worker has already completed a virtual London Marathon last year.<br /><br />And and is set to run the real thing on Sunday April 21.<br /><br />Running without a top on has become "the norm" for Louise and she plans to run the entire 26.2 mile route without a t-shirt, come rain or shine.<br /><br />She said: "I'm so excited - I can't imagine it.<br /><br />"I keep looking at videos of the day from previous years online.<br /><br />"I'm just thinking about the atmosphere - I never thought I'd get there.<br /><br />"The topless thing for me now is normal; it's not even crossed my mind, not in the slightest.<br /><br />"I've ran every run topless for a year. I'm not going to be thinking about that whilst I'm running - it's my norm.<br /><br />"I feel much stronger and better for this marathon than the others. <br /><br />"I did my 20.5 mile run on Monday and it was amazing and I felt like I could have carried on.<br /><br />"I'm still getting messages from women that it makes them feel better. I know it's the right thing to do."<br /><br />Louise was diagnosed with lobular breast cancer in April 2022.<br /><br />She found a lump in her breast by checking herself and the diagnosis was confirmed by an ultrasound.<br /><br />She refused to let the diagnosis or radiotherapy treatment stop her from running and hopes to complete her latest challenge in under five hours.<br /><br />She said: "I'm aiming for four hours 46 minutes but with my training, I think I'll be able to do it 4 hour 30 but you never know what will happen.<br /><br />"It's amazing - there's so much awareness around flat closure surgery and the whole aspect of women not having to have stuff put back.<br /><br />"I don't think there's a better way to do it than running topless.<br /><br />"With the Breast Cancer Now team, there's 250 of us running.<br /><br />"I've done so much training in the cold and wet so if it's raining I'm used to it without the top."<br /><br />The London Marathon starts in Blackheath and passes through many of London's famous landmarks.<br /><br />On her reasoning for wanting to run topless, Louise said: "It was so dark in 2022 with the cancer, running topless didn't feel brave, I felt like I needed to do it.<br /><br />"When I first did it, it wasn't tough, it just felt a bit weird but now I don't blink an eye, - it's who I am now.<br /><br />"I was running once or twice a week before the diagnosis, but six months before I was diagnosed I started training for the virtual marathon and since then I haven't stopped.<br /><br />"It's just things about inspiring women to have body positivity - even women who haven't had breast cancer.<br /><br />"We don't have to feel shame.<br /><br />"A lot of women who have reconstruction do so as they feel like they want to fit into society and some of them regret it and end up going flat anyway.<br /><br />"It's opened up the argument and the perception of what society looks at breasts as."
