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Following on from last week’s episode, Topless Runner Returns – Catching Up with Louise Butcher, this week on Wellbeing Interrupted, I’m sharing the second part of my conversation with Louise. We’d finished the official interview… and then kept chatting. And honestly, I’m so glad we did. 

This part of our conversation took a turn into something really powerful—mindset, body image, and how we come to feel truly comfortable in our own skin. Not just post-cancer. Not just post-mastectomy. But as women moving through all sorts of changes in life. 

Confidence After Mastectomy: It Doesn’t Happen Overnight 

When you see someone like Louise running topless through a marathon, it might be easy to assume confidence came naturally. But she’s the first to say it didn’t. 

That confidence has been something she’s built slowly over time. It didn’t show up the day she left hospital. It didn’t magically arrive after her second mastectomy. It came from working through discomfort, grief, and healing—not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. 

And hearing her talk about that reminded me that self-confidence is rarely a before-and-after story. It’s messy. It takes time. And most of all, it takes work. 

Body Acceptance and the Freedom of Letting Go of Judgment 

One of the things I loved most in this chat was hearing how Louise has let go of worrying about what other people think. It’s something we talk about a lot, but actually doing it is something else entirely. 

She spoke about how that shift didn’t just happen overnight, either—but over time, she stopped seeking external validation. And when that happens, there’s this incredible kind of freedom that opens up. 

It really made me reflect on the times I’ve held back—whether that was delaying using a walker or feeling self-conscious about my own body. How often do we let the imagined opinions of others stop us from actually living our lives? 

Navigating Body Image and Hormone Therapy with Self-Compassion 

As we chatted, it also brought up something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately—how hormone therapy is helping keep me alive but also changing my body. 

Yes, I’m grateful. But I’m also frustrated that my jeans don’t fit the way they used to. And I know I’m not alone. Whether it’s hormone therapy, menopause, illness or simply ageing—our bodies change. And we don’t always talk about how hard that can feel. 

There’s room for both: gratitude for our health and compassion for the days when we feel uncomfortable in our skin. Talking to Louise helped me realise I could be doing better at both. 

Self-Acceptance Isn’t a Destination—It’s a Process 

If there’s one takeaway from this episode, it’s this: self-acceptance isn’t a goal you reach and tick off. It’s a process. Louise didn’t go from surgery to self-love overnight. It took time, and it took practice. 

That’s something we can all carry into our own lives. Whether you're dealing with illness, adjusting to body changes, or just trying to feel a bit more at peace in your skin—give yourself time. Show yourself some patience. And remember, it’s okay not to have it all figured out. 

Because this isn’t about being perfectly confident. It’s about being honest with ourselves and learning how to meet our bodies—and our minds—where they’re at. 

Show Resources

• Support Breast Cancer Now: [Fundraising Link]
• Listen to Louise’s first episode on Wellbeing Interrupted: [Episode 20]  
• Listen to Louise's second episode on Wellbeing Interrupted: [Episode 60]

Follow Louise:

• Instagram: @louisebutcher39
• Facebook: Louse Bernadette Butcher
• TikTok: The Topless Runner

Transcript Episode 61 Topless Runner - How Mindset and Self-Acceptance Change Everything 

Teisha Rose: [00:00:00] Hey there, Teisha here and welcome to episode 61 of Wellbeing Interrupted. Hopefully you've had a good week. I am recording this intro bit from another hotel room. Um, very busy preparing for this Sydney. Um. Expo or the Australian healthcare week up in Sydney at Darling Harbor next week. So lots of recording to do.

Um, lots of preparation to do. So I thought I better look after myself and it's a bit tricky doing it in the caravan at Daisy Hill. So I'm set up and yeah, having a few nights away again. Um, if you didn't manage to listen to last week's episode, so last week, episode 60, I talked to Louise Butcher, topless runner again.

Love the conversation. I encourage you probably to hit pause on this episode, go back to that. [00:01:00] Because after I finished asking Louise the questions I had planned to ask, we ended up chatting some more, and it was really important conversation about mindset, about not worrying about what other people think. For me, it was really reassuring that someone who's so self confident has been also working on their mindset to get to that place.

So if you've been listening to Wellbeing Interrupted for a while, even if you just listen to the new intro, um, I talk about that the number one thing for me in living with any health condition well is the power of your mindset. So Louise and I were very aligned with that. So enjoy this bit of our conversation.

But I'll come back and actually challenge you on [00:02:00] how you can apply some of what we've learned from Louise into your own life. 

Louise Butcher: I remember someone saying as well that when you get to a point in your life where you don't feel like you've got, um, say your kids have grown up, or for any reason that you don't feel like you've got a passion or you haven't got, [00:03:00] uh, a purpose is when everything can start to go a little bit wrong. And I think that's where I was before I got cancer.

I, I was a mother, um, but I also didn't feel, um, 'cause as a woman. Being a mother is a part of a woman. I don't think it's everything. I think you can be a lot more. And I felt like I, I wasn't anything anymore. And I think the cancer turned that around. And now because of what I'm doing and the empowerment that I'm spreading and the, and the volunteering, um, made it makes me happier.

And I think it does. 'cause that's what you're here for really, isn't it? You're not here for yourself. And I think you realize that when you get cancer, um. That you are, it's not just about you. And I think that's where you get your happiness from is when you're doing such things that are bigger than you or affecting things that are bigger than you.

So yeah, that's where a lot of the joy comes from. I.

Teisha Rose: Yeah. And I agree. It's like living in alignment and living with purpose. And you're right. And for some people that's not maybe important, but I'm [00:04:00] certainly like you. Um, I want to do things to give meaning to, yeah. I randomly, our breast ends it up with a tumor in it.

It's like, how do you make sense of that? It's happened, so what do we do with that experience?

Louise Butcher: Yeah. I think so. Yeah. And I think that that is part of the acceptance and part of the healing as well, isn't it? It's all, it's all measurable in how you get over it and how your mindset changes. And I think as well, it's quite strange 'cause.

I find my family are more supportive, but like Paul's family aren't and they don't want to know about the whole thing. Um, and that's fine 'cause that's their choice, but I also felt that the value, what they had was put on different things. So they're in a different place to me and that's fine. Um, but yeah, it just, it kind of just shows as well where whereas a person you can.

Change if you can change the way that you think you can change your whole being. And I, [00:05:00] I just find that really interesting. And then that makes me look at other people differently as well. And I, and, and it is just the psychology of, of it all. I, it just blows me away.

Teisha Rose: Yeah, and you, you're right, and I, I talk about having ms, the natural response, when I say to people, you know, I've got breast cancer, is like, oh, how unlucky.

That's awful. You've also got Ms. Life's unfair. Yeah, but I talk about MS is my silver lining because. The same thing. I've learned how to use my mindset to have an impact on that condition. Yeah. So if you are already ahead of the game and you think, okay, I applied this to stage four breast cancer and see how we go and the outcome, you know, I'm sitting here in remission, and not saying that's all mindset, but it's having an impact on, yeah.

Whatever that experience is.

Louise Butcher: Yeah. Uh, and a bigger impact than you give it credit for, isn't it? Yeah. Uh, or a lot of people give it [00:06:00] credit for, I think when you, when you tune into that. I think the cancer journey for me, taught me that more than anything because it was about when I had to sit in the moment and I couldn't get past the next 10 minutes, I had to find that, um, that like the mindfulness and all that sort of stuff.

Because it does make you go into that place, doesn't it? Whereas when you're just going about your daily life without that kind of massive trauma, you don't need to think like that. You're just like, oh, we're just getting on and we're going through it, and we're, and then you forget actually what it's all about.

And I think that's what really for me changed. It wasn't necessarily the cancer change me, it was the fact that the cancer made me find a place that changed me. And I think a lot of people go through that. 'cause from what I gather from, um, other people speaking in the same way. They all are similar in the mindsets.

So who, who do things after it? Like in any diagnosis or anything that changes you so much?

Teisha Rose: Yeah, a hundred percent. And it is then. Someone mentioned, [00:07:00] and I did an interview about hope, and they said, well, how can you have hope for the future? You're being given a stage four breast cancer diagnosis. And it's like, no.

Once you go through this and you're right, work out that your mindset can have an impact. There's always gonna be hope because no matter what happens, you'll have an impact on that. And I said. How much more confidence does it give you that even, and I'm not visualizing this, I'm in remission and it is my hope that that happens for a very long time, but no matter what happens, I'll have an impact on my last breath.

You know? Yeah. You can have an impact on how that passing happens. Yeah, so there is always. Hope. And you, you're right. If you've got this thought that we've got this dynamic mindset and we can have an impact on anything, then that makes life more exciting. It does. And

Louise Butcher: because you can, you can kind of do anything.

Yeah. You can give, you can give yourself the chance. And also like [00:08:00] with, um, if you put that with not fearing judgment, oh my God, that is so powerful because you've literally given yourself the freedom. That you've probably never had in your life and that most people never get. So what can you do with that?

I mean, it's like it is and they say like a gift, but to me it is. 'cause I'm like, if you're not worried about, 'cause I do feel like a lot of society and a lot of people who, um, like I did get into this. Place where you just stuck is because of what you're feeling. Other people are gonna think, oh, I can't do that.

Society thinks, or what would they think of me? And a lot of my friends will say, oh, I couldn't do that because what would people say? And I just, the freedom I have when I think I don't really care and it, and some people say I don't care, and they still do, but I say it and I don't. 'cause I doesn't think well.

Well, it's obvious I don't because of what I do, but yeah, no, it's just massive freedom and, um, yeah, and, and, and give and put that with a positive mindset, um, getting through cancer and coming out the other end after the darkness. Yeah, there's a lot, there's [00:09:00] so much potential there, isn't there?

Teisha Rose: Yeah, it is.

And it is to be genuinely excited about that and where that takes us and yeah. Yeah. And there is so many incredible things that can still happen, and I hope that is the message from this conversation is no matter what you're going through, breast cancer or whatever it is, you're right. Let's feel that freedom of not worrying about what others think and yeah.

Let's feel that excitement that we can have an impact and use our mindset to have an impact. And it's not always been positive, you know, it is been authentic. Like we said, it's been authentic in that acceptance and going through all those emotions. But, um, yeah, once you work out how to use your mind, um, to have an impact, it is, it's exciting.

Louise Butcher: Yeah, it is. And also as well, the other, the perception from the, the other person is. How I see it now. So if someone says to me, um, oh, that's gross, or I, [00:10:00] you shouldn't be showing those gals, we don't want to see them, I'll know that's coming from within them. Yeah. And, and what's going on in their head, how they see things, but not how I look.

So that, and even that, when you start to realize that. That's really powerful as well. Um, because obviously I see it in my child. She's like eight and obviously peer and peers and the, you get your sense of self through what other people say about you and your environment and it's really hard to explain to her when, when people say, I don't like the way your hair is, or You don't look right without your glasses, really upsets her.

Coming from an adult who's gone through all of this, how can I expect her to, when I say, oh, it doesn't matter. It's what? It's the issues with them. Then she's like, what? Because that's not ever gonna impact an 8-year-old. But you see it start so young because yeah, that's what they get, and then they're living in this world where the judgment from others means so much.

That validation and how I should look, you see it happening. So as an adult, you know that you're [00:11:00] affected by it. It started so young, how can it not affect her? You can't. If you, if she, to be honest, if she came up to me and said, no, I don't seek external validation, I'd be, I was like, there's something wrong because that's normal.

But then when you realize you can, you don't have to seek it or you don't have to be valued by that. That's massive. But that text, that texts a lot of seeking, doesn't it?

Teisha Rose: Yeah, that's right. That's right. But I think conversations like this help and Yeah. You know, and that's why I wanted to reconnect with you and I said to you, we don't know where this conversation's gonna go.

And I love it that, and that's why I know that we are aligned in many ways because for me, absolutely. Mindset is so powerful, and that's something we all have and we can all work on. Yeah. And but that takes time.

Louise Butcher: Yeah, it does. But it's nice to know that the message is out there that everyone can do it.

Teisha Rose: Yeah. Yeah, [00:12:00] just, just not run. But that's all right

Louise Butcher: that, that's my next challenge moment. The mindset is, is something that everyone can change.

Teisha Rose: Yeah. Absolutely. Well, thank you Louise. Again, I absolutely love what you are doing, but just tell us how do people start following you on Instagram, on TikTok? What are your handles?

And we'll also put those in the show notes.

Louise Butcher: Yeah. So on Facebook, um, it's just. Louise, Bernadette Butcher, the topless runner. Um, Instagram, I think is Louise Butcher, 39 and TikTok, you can find me under the topless runner. Um, I mean, yeah, it's kind of, if you just type in Google, the topless runner, they'll come up now because it's.

Kind of my nickname now. So it is funny. And even if you ask Alexa, who's the top lister, I know this AI because AI's amazing. AI comes off. 'cause they go and find all these news reels and what I've been on and it'll come up with all this stuff. And I'll be like, Ooh, well that's just amazing. But weren't you in [00:13:00] People Magazine?

Was it in people? Yeah, it was in people. That's, I mean, people. Really big, isn't it? Yeah. Um, Reuters as well, which is, I mean, that was like massive. I was like, wow. Even my husband knew that, knew that one because he's not, he's not really into the sort of like the news online, the internet stuff. But I, when I said that, he went, what?

Um, so it got, it got really, because that people, I was like, wow. And then there was quite a few other sort of, I mean it went all around the world, the marathon. It was in most countries. And that was massive. That was brilliant because that's what I wanted it to do. I didn't expect it to get that big, but that was what was, that was the point.

Teisha Rose: Yeah. Yeah. No, it's amazing. Amazing what, what you are doing, but it's a lot of hard work, what you're doing as well, physically, emotionally as well, because no matter what you're working through a lot. So Yeah. From someone who is. Flat chested. Thank you for all you do because Thank you. What you are doing and the awareness you are [00:14:00] creating, the conversations you're starting will have an impact.

They've impacted me, so I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had such a positive impact from what you do. So thank you. Oh, thank you. You are welcome. So yeah, and to everyone, I'll have all the details and also we'll put in the link for breast cancer now, um, in terms of your fundraising page as well. So let's create awareness and we will watch, and hopefully you'll be on our screens in Australia post marathon.

Louise Butcher: Yay.

Teisha Rose: Great. Thanks Louise.

Louise Butcher: Thank you.

Teisha Rose: Okay, so hopefully. You got a lot out of that little last bit, the last sort of 10 minutes of my conversation with Louise. What I got out of this is how self-acceptance, self-confidence is such a process. So it's not something that we [00:15:00] aim for. We will achieve it, and then we don't have to work on ourselves.

It is a process. Louise is proof of that. She didn't wake up from surgery and think, okay, I'm fine. I'm happy being flat chested. I'm gonna run topless now in front of thousands of people. You know that confidence came from doing lots of work on herself over time, and that is something we can all do as feeling good in your body isn't easy.

Living with an illness, I'm sure like me, that has been challenging for me. For example, as I talk about. My legs don't look normal. My gait is very compromised. Having lived with MS for 27 years now with breast cancer, I'm on hormone [00:16:00] therapy. Like Louise says, being grateful about your scars, they've kept you alive.

Hormone therapy is also keeping me alive, but it's also the reason my genes don't fit me anymore. And some days that is so frustrating and I know I should be grateful that the hormone therapy is working. But for other women going through menopause, the changes that creates in your body, that's hard. And it's not just about jeans not fitting, it's just about feeling different in your body.

So. Chatting to Louise really challenged me to be kinder to myself and to accept my body as it is without criticizing it all the time. That's not saying I'm giving myself permission not to be healthy. I know being healthy helps MS also helps with my cancer, but I just [00:17:00] need to be a bit kinder about eye growing belly.

So I'm sure I'm not alone in that, especially as we get older, our bodies do change and we need to accept our bodies. But also what I loved what Louise talked about is that freedom of not caring what people think. It took me 25 years in living with MS to actually then use a walker because I was concerned about what people thought of me.

And that's so ridiculous. I was letting the opinions of others to stop me from embracing my life. So let's be more self-accepting of ourselves. Let's not worry about what other people think. Because if the opinions others are stopping you from getting out and enjoying life, then you are the one that's missing [00:18:00] out.

Okay. I could chat about this for ages, but we'll leave it there. If you haven't already listened to episode 57, I encourage you to do that because I chat to Tammy Wong. Tammy shares her story about the impact hair loss has, and it's very aligned to what we're talking about today and how she's embraced.

Not only how that's impacted her appearance, but also not worrying about what other people think. So have a listen to episode 57. Other than that, enjoy your week. When this episode comes out, I'll actually be in Sydney. Um, so follow me on Instagram at Hurdle2Hope and have a look at what we're up to, just near the Harbour Bridge.

Okay, chat soon. [00:19:00]