‘I hate my saggy 40K-cup breasts – the NHS has refused surgery at least 20 times, I’m desperate to have my freedom back’

A mother who “hates” the way she looks with her “heavy and saggy” size 40K-cup breasts is “desperately” fundraising for surgery after claiming the NHS turned her down at least 20 times.

Joanna Brice, 52, who lives in Devon, said she was “flat chested” until she turned 13 and it felt like her C cup breasts suddenly appeared, leaving her “self-conscious” and the target of teasing at school.

Her breasts grew to a size G in the 2010s, and she is now a size 40K in her right breast and 40HH in her left, experiencing severe back pain, nerve damage and fungal infections on the skin underneath.

Since 2000, she said she has repeatedly requested a breast reduction through the NHS and, despite explaining the physical and mental toll, has been denied surgery each time, leaving her feeling “deflated”.

She is now fundraising for private surgery – involving moving her nipples, removing excess fat and reshaping breast tissue – worth £10,000, as she hopes to finally be “looked at for me, not my boobs”.

Joanna, a mother of two, told PA Real Life: “I used to go swimming because it was a way of releasing the weight in the water because my breasts act like inflatables – but even that became problematic because I can’t find swimming costumes that accommodate.

“I have to wear a bra under my swimming costume but it would ruin the bras and get even more expensive because I’d have to buy new ones.

“This limits my ability to maintain a healthy lifestyle.”

Joanna said she was “flat chested” until she was 13, and it felt as though her “breasts grew overnight” to a C cup.

She felt very “self-conscious”, often covering her chest with her arms as “camouflage”, which eventually led to her developing rounded shoulders.

Joanna added: “People, especially boys, would make fun of them, calling them ‘jugs’ or ‘melons’.

“They were inappropriate, pulling my bra straps, and it just makes you more self-conscious.

“They’re all sex mad at that age, and they always looked at my boobs first – they weren’t interested in me as a person.”

For most of Joanna’s adult life before having children, she said she was a size 38C, but after having her first daughter in 1996, she went up to a 38DD, with her breasts “continuing to grow”.

By the time she had her second daughter in 2000, she said she had gone up to a 40EE.

Over the years, she said her breasts have grown further, reaching a size G in the 2010s.

By that point, she said she was experiencing severe back pain and nerve damage, which affected her mobility.

She is now a size 40K in bras, with her left breast being three cup sizes smaller at a 40HH.

She finds shopping for bras “very frustrating”, struggling to find shops that stock her size, and she said one bra costs her “at least” £40.

Joanna said she “goes through” bras “very quickly” because of them having to “hold up the weight” of her breasts.

The straps often break and wrinkle, and she said she has “permanent dents” in her shoulders from her bras, and often needs to wear large plasters.

At the end of each day, Joanna said she always feels “sore, sweaty and horrible” from wearing a bra, and even develops fungal infections on the skin underneath her breasts.

She added: “I even apply Sudocrem under my breasts every day, otherwise I get paper cuts.

“As you get older, you lose the volume in your breasts.”

She also finds lying in bed “uncomfortable” because of her breasts, and struggles to sleep as a result.

Joanna has tried losing weight to help relieve the pain and discomfort, but said it did not make a difference and made her breasts “look even worse”.

Joanna believes this has negatively impacted her mental health, often leaving her reluctant to socialise because she cannot “buy anything pretty or nice to wear”.

“It’s exhausting, frustrating, depressing, miserable,” she said.

“I feel my breasts have caused me self-image problems – I think people perceive me negatively, which has led to self-doubt.”

Because of this discomfort, she said she has been trying to get a breast reduction through the NHS since 2000.

According to the NHS, breast reduction surgery generally involves moving the nipples to new positions – usually while they are still attached to the blood supply.

It also consists of removing excess fat, tissue and skin from the breasts, and reshaping the remaining tissue.

People with health problems caused by having very large breasts – such as back pain, skin irritation, grooves on the shoulders and depression – can sometimes have surgery on the NHS.

The exact criteria depends on where people live.

She said: “It’s not a cosmetic thing – I just want to be smaller so I can buy a cheaper bra, wear clothes that aren’t like a tent and not be in pain all the time.”

In 2000, while living in Exeter, she went to her GP and was put on a waiting list at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, but she said “nothing happened”.

She tried again a few months later, with her case going to a panel, but she said it was denied.

Joanna said: “They said it was cosmetics and they weren’t funding it.

“I got deflated, and you just think, ‘I just have to put up with it’.”

After moving to another area of Devon and changing her GP in 2005, she said she has tried “sporadically” about twice a year since then.

Joanna estimates she has requested a breast reduction at least 20 times.

Last year, she said her GP fought for her case, providing extra photos and explaining the mental impact, but Joanna said it was rejected by the same hospital again.

“I showed them photos of my breasts, which felt degrading, and they still said no,” she said.

As a result of “getting nowhere” through the NHS, she says, she has started exploring having the surgery privately, which she estimates will cost £10,000, including a consultation.

Joanna, who is not working, has launched a GoFundMe to help cover the costs.

She said: “The surgery would help everything in my life, it would just mean freedom.

“I just want to be looked at for me, not my boobs.

“I hate the way I look because of them.

“I just had enough and I’ve gotten to the point where I’m just desperate.”

A spokesperson from NHS Devon said: “We are sorry to hear of Joanna’s situation. As with all patients, we are unable to discuss the details of their care.

“NHS Devon does not routinely commission breast reduction surgery, as set out in our breast reduction surgery commissioning policy.

“When an individual’s clinician considers that they have exceptional clinical circumstances, which would support them being considered for NHS-funded treatment as an exception to the policy, a request can be submitted on behalf of the patient through the NHS Devon Individual Funding Request (IFR) process.”

To donate to her fundraiser, visit: www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-help-with-a-breast-reduction.