TV producers spotted my Insta breast surgery pictures

A consultant surgeon specialising in breast reconstruction said it was a gallery of surgery images on her social media that caught the eye of television producers.

Sascha Dua, from Dunmow in Essex, features on the Channel 5 series The Surgeon, with crews following her on the job around the wards of Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford.

She said the cameras kept rolling behind-the-scenes, combining her day-to-day work as a surgeon with her home life as a single mother to a teenager.

"They're like, 'OK, you're not a typical surgeon... you're not a typical white male', and I said, 'no, I'm more than that, I'm a single mum too'. So, this is girls making it work," the 52-year-old added.

She said single mothers were a rarity among consultant surgeons and that they tended to do something more "child-friendly" for work.

"It would be so much nicer if we made it easier for women who are doing the bulk of the child-rearing, or the men who are doing the bulk of the child-rearing, to go off and succeed.

"Traditionally you'll still see more men in consulting positions than women, but you know they're coming up."

Dua said she noticed a lack of female colleagues 30 years ago when she was training to be a breast surgeon, but she was skilled with her hands - and felt the career had potential for her.

"It's the curability of breast cancer," she said.

"As a breast surgeon, you hear the horror stories as patients, you hear the horror stories in the media," but, she said she wanted to help women see cancer as "that little glitch in the story of your life".

"These women, they may not be health-wise... they're so scared," she said.

She added that she knew it was "not a positive experience" for patients, but if she could "send a woman back to her family" with fewer worries, then she had done her job.

She said it was "fascinating" to have cameras follow her through her home life.

"I think they were quite curious just to see just how much of a symphony it is to organise my life but somehow you just get on with it, you don't know any different," she said.

Watching the series for herself even helped her see more of the patient journey than she would have otherwise seen, she revealed.

"It's the best learning that we can do - to watch ourselves and how we interact - so that's been quite educational for me as well," she said.

"I do far too much hugging."

Viewers meet patient Jess Sloan on the programme, as she receives her cancer diagnosis. The cameras follow her as she undergoes two lumpectomies - a type of surgery that removes a portion of breast tissue.

The 36-year-old from Chelmsford told BBC Essex that she noticed something was off while getting dressed one morning.

She said: "I looked in the mirror and I noticed my breast looked slightly different, and so I felt it and there was a lump there. So, I went to the GP the very next day, and they said it was probably a cyst but they would refer me to Broomfield Hospital."

Beyond the desire to raise awareness, her reason for agreeing to the documentary was to highlight how "amazing" both Sascha and the rest of the staff were during her care.

She added that being a mother to a toddler had been a "great distraction" and not given her the time to overthink.

"I have her to look after every day, so I have to show up and be the best mum I can be for her, but equally it is tricky because everything that is coming will affect her in some way," she added.

Sloan is currently waiting for a mastectomy, which requires the removal or one or both of the breasts as a method of treating or preventing future cancer growths.

• The Surgeon can be seen at 21:00 GMT on Wednesday 25 February on Channel 5.

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