'Bachelor's' Lesley Murphy poses topless after double mastectomy

By : Kirthana Dewi 

Lesley Murphy says she decided to kick "cancer's a** before it could kick mine."

The former "Bachelor" contestant is healing after recently undergoing a preventive double mastectomy.

Murphy, a travel blogger who appeared on on Season 17 of "The Bachelor," said she decided to have the surgery after she tested positive for the BRCA 2 gene mutation, which increases the risk of developing breast cancer.

In a posting before her surgery, Murphy shared on her Instagram account that her mother is a breast cancer survivor.

"It's because of her diagnosis that I underwent genetic testing and can now do something about it," Murphy wrote. "Knowledge is power."

Murphy documented her surgery and its aftermath on social media.

In one photo, Murphy poses topless with her hair cascading over where her breasts used to be.

"I think my upper half is healing nicely," she wrote. "Sure, it's sunken in and lumpy because what you see are deflated expanders that were put in, which will gradually get filled every 2-3 weeks as I get ready for reconstructive surgery."

Her doctors "only made one vertical incision on the lower half of both breasts while saving skin & nipple" Murphy wrote.

"So while all breast tissue is (hopefully) gone, I retained some of the old me," she added. "God is good."