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In an op-ed for Mamamia, Minoli has opened up further about the heartbreaking moment she learned of her diagnosis.
“I felt overwhelmed, helpless, angry, sad, and broken. The more I thought about it, the more embarrassed I got about potentially losing my breasts. They made me feel like a woman,” she writes for Mamamia.
“You know that annoying voice in your head that makes you doubt yourself? That voice was telling me I wasn’t woman enough because I had breasts that didn’t look like that of any woman in a magazine. I felt like I was hiding a deformity and doing a very good job of it. It’s a strange feeling to not feel womanly.”
Minoli had to choose between a uni versus bilateral mastectomy and ended up deciding on the latter, saying her “gut” told her that it was the best choice for her health.
Following a 12 hour surgery, Minoli spent three weeks “feeling like an octopus” with drain tubes across four surgery sites. With weeks of recovery to go through, the contestant reveals she had “one week to chill” before MasterChef began.
“If I can beat breast cancer twice, I reckon I can do anything,” she says of her positive attitude heading back to the show.
Fans fell in love with Minoli in Season 13, where she came in 10th after cooking impressive dishes like Anthony Hart’s Chocolate Oasis for the judges.
She previously opened up about her love of cooking last year, revealing she was inspired to be more creative in the kitchen following her first cancer diagnosis. A side effect of her treatment the first time around had been losing her sense of taste.
“When my sense of taste started to return it happened really gradually, so I was was only able to reintroduce foods that kind of worked with my palate, really fresh food, and slowly slowly build up all the different spices that I was able to eat,” Minoli told news.com last year.
“Post-treatment, I was always really present when I ate. I was mindful eating food and being so conscious of what I was doing, because I had to learn to be conscious,” she said. “It was like introducing food into a child’s diet and the child going ‘Ooh, what’s this’.”
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Already impressing the judges and viewers this season, Minoli is one to watch!
MasterChef Australia airs Sunday to Thursday, 7:30pm, on 10 and 10Play.