"I run round my village topless - but it's for an important reason"

A mum says it is "empowering" to be known in her village as the topless runner - as she is raising awareness around breast cancer. Louise Butcher, 50, often jogs a route around Braunton, Devon with her top half uncovered. The mum-of-two had a mastectomy in 2022 and now runs topless to raise awareness. She has already done a virtual London Marathon and plans to run the real thing next year. Louise has become known around her village for running without a top on and says it feels "normal." She said: "It's really empowering and I do it every day. "I did a local marathon on Sunday and had a massive outpouring of love. "It's opening up the awareness around breast cancer and helping to normalise it a little bit. "It's normal where I am now. It feels weird when I wear a top to run! "I went out the other day with a top as it was a little cold and I usually take it off when I warm up, and this woman stopped me in the street and asked me why I was wearing a top. "Now when I go out it doesn't feel weird, it's doing so much good out there." Louise was diagnosed with lobular breast cancer in April 2022. The charity volunteer discovered a lump in her breast by checking herself, with the diagnosis being confirmed by an ultrasound. She refused to let the diagnosis or radiotherapy treatment stop her from running and completed last year's race in five hours and five minutes. On her reasoning for wanting to run topless, Louise said: "Last year was so dark with the cancer, running topless didn't feel brave, I felt like I needed to do it. "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. "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 - I've done three marathons in the last 12 months. "It's just things about inspiring women to have body positivity - even women who haven't had breast cancer. "We don't have to feel shame. "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. "It's opened up the argument and the perception of what society looks at breasts as." Fresh off the back of completing the Barnstaple Marathon on October 1, Louise is now in the process of setting up a topless swim before her London Marathon next year. She said: "Barnstaple was a hard run, quite warm and I was sick from mile 16 and couldn't keep water down from mile 21. "A medic called Victoria ran with me for the last few miles, she was amazing and the whole run was still amazing though. "The swim was supposed to be in September but it got so much positive back up behind it that someone is sponsoring it for next spring. "That's becoming a body positivity swim and that's supposed to be about other women joining me. "The London Marathon is my dream so I can't believe I'm in that."