A woman has repeatedly refused a boob job on the NHS after being born with only one breast.
Becca Butcher discovered she had a rare syndrome during puberty, but it took years before she was diagnosed with Poland Syndrome.
The real estate receptionist spent her teenage years frantically searching for help and feeling 'lost' but said doctors 'didn't take her seriously'.
Now she finally has answers but is refusing plastic surgery to give her a second boob despite medics 'pushing for it', reports Yorkshire Live.
Since Becca's diagnosis, she has worked to raise awareness and help others feel more comfortable in their skin.
Speaking to Yorkshire Live, Becca from Barnsley said: "I believed that one day I’d wake up and magically have two boobs, but obviously that never happened.
"I realised that my boobs were different sizes as a teenager, a friend pointed out to me that one was bigger than the other and that’s when I realised it was so noticeable that other people could see it too.
"I’d look around at all the other girls my age who had two boobs but I still only had one and it made me feel very self conscious.
"I asked my doctor for help but they told me that my chest was 'normal' and 'would grow eventually' like how some girls get their periods later than others."
As she began to search for answers, her teenage years was spent researching how to encourage breast growth or even using ill fitting bras in an attempt to try and even her chest.
More common in men, the disorder means that individuals are born with missing or underdeveloped muscles on one side of their body.
This can mean abnormalities in the hand, arm, shoulder and chest.
The extent and severity range from person to person, but it is estimated to occur in 1 in 20,000 newborns.
For unknown reasons, the disorder occurs more than twice in males than it does in females.
It is often undiagnosed as mild cases, that don't affect hand movement, may never come to medical attention.
Becca continued: "I began to read online that you can stimulate boob growth so spent a lot of my time rubbing and patting my chest in the hopes it would catch up.
"I’d wear bras that fit my smaller flatter side which pushed my larger boob back to make it look smaller and made my chest look even but my classmates would then make comments about me having small boobs.
"They didn’t realise that I actually had one quite large boob.
"I tried to get my chest measured by bra specialists at places like M&S or Debenhams but they struggled to give me an accurate size due to the size difference.
"I started to wear mastectomy bras, made for women who’ve lost a breast to cancer, as those bras are more supportive for me but they’re always quite bland or marketed towards older women but when I tried one on in a changing room, the women working there told me that I’m too young to be trying on a bra like that.
"It’s hard to find bras, swimsuits and clothes that fit just one boob, a lot of clothes need two boobs to support each other so that one doesn’t fall out and to create a cleavage."
It took Becca years to be diagnosed, leaving her feeling she often wasn't taken seriously.
It wasn't until she was able to provide her own research that she received a diagnosis.
She added: "I asked my doctors a few more times over the years but they’d always turn me away, I felt like they weren’t taking me seriously.
"One day I googled 'one boob' and I came across a photo of someone whose boobs looked exactly like mine.
"I saw that they had a condition called Poland Syndrome and so I brought my findings to the doctors and finally came to the conclusion that this is what I have.
"Poland Syndrome is very rare so not many doctors will ever see it in their career, not a lot is known about it and it’s more common in men.
"As soon as I was diagnosed with Poland Syndrome my doctors offered me a free boob job on the NHS.
"I know most girls would jump at the chance of a free boob job but I didn’t want to change myself, I just wanted to know why my chest was deformed.
"For years I felt lost, alone and confused but now that I knew what Poland Syndrome was, it was like I finally had an instruction manual for myself and could understand why I am the way that I am.
"I was quite happy to just live with it, but the doctors kept pushing for me to take the surgery.
"I felt like I was broken or needed to be fixed as doctors kept mentioning it.
"I'd see them about unrelated things and it was like they wouldn’t take no for an answer."
Becca decided to search for others like herself and see if she could offer help to anyone who might be going through the same struggle of diagnosis and feeling alone.
Creating social media accounts, Becca said she was inundated with messages from women who had the same disorder.
Becca found that a lot of the women had surgery to cover their size differences, but because Poland Syndrome is a muscle deformity, the muscle itself can’t actually be fixed.
Becca said: "you can only put a fake breast on top of it which has lead to complications and pain for a few of the women I've spoken to.
"Some of the women told me that they felt suicidal due to their chests, that they’ve avoided starting relationships because they don’t want another person to see their breasts, and that they’d paid thousands of pounds to have surgeries and consultations.
"Many are scared that their partners or future partners won’t find them sexy.
"But if someone cares more about how your boobs look than about your feelings then they don’t deserve your love.
"I've never had a partner make a comment, I'd usually warn them before they see."
Yet Becca has embraced the syndrome, stating that despite the difficulties she faces, she wouldn't change it.
She added: "it shouldn’t matter what anyone else thinks about my chest, it only matters what I think.
"And although it can make clothes shopping difficult, I wouldn’t change it - I even joke about it sometimes, things like 'Breast of both worlds' , all stupid stuff really but I prefer to laugh about it rather than cry."
Becca can be found sharing her messages of body-positivity and confidence here, and is open to helping others and questions that they may have.
You don't have to suffer in silence if you're struggling with your mental health. Here are some groups you can contact when you need help.
Samaritans: Phone 116 123, 24 hours a day, or email jo@samaritans.org, in confidence
Childline: Phone 0800 1111. Calls are free and won't show up on your bill
