Breast removal can often leave women feeling stripped of their femininity.

But thanks to a revolutionary cosmetic procedure, women are having their breasts restored to near perfect.

Christine Davey, 63, of Mandeville Drive, St Albans, was the first woman to have a nipple tattooed onto her reconstructed breast at St Albans City Hospital following a mastectomy five years ago.

The procedure, medically dubbed areola pigmentation, recreates the nipple lost during breast removal and often helps to boost women's self-esteem, which is so often damaged as a result of the operation.

Following her diagnosis with breast cancer in 2002 thanks to a routine mammogram screening, Christine was given the news by doctors that every woman dreads - her left breast would have to be removed.

At the time she was desperate to overcome the killer disease, which affects one in three of us, and without hesitation opted to go under the knife.

But it was during the recovery period that she was suddenly hit with the traumatic emotional effects so many women experience following a mastectomy.

She recalled feeling unwomanly and conscious of her "abnormal" appearance on having an object of her femininity suddenly removed.

She described how she would often look in the mirror and feel depressed to see her distorted chest area.

"There was just nothing there," Christine said. "I even walked lopsided."

For two years she used a prosthesis (false breast) to restore some of her shattered confidence.

"It was my party piece," she said. "I used to pull my contacts out, pull my teeth out, then put the boob on top of my head."

But it was Christine's bubbly character which helped to disguise the grim reality of life with a false breast.

"It would pop out and I was constantly watching what I was putting on," she said. "Certain clothes I couldn't wear.

"I was always conscious when I was swimming in case it came out of my swimming costume."

After three years of surviving with a synthetic boob, Christine decided to have reconstructive surgery and later discovered her nipple could also be recreated to closely resemble the original.

Breast care nurse Marian Parfitt, who has been nipple tattooing in the Breast Care Unit at St Albans City Hospital since January last year, performed Christine's procedure two months after her operation.

Technically, tattooing takes place to accentuate the areola, the area around the reconstructed nipple.

It is important that Marian experiments by mixing and blending different colours to achieve the right shade for each patient.

In the same way a tattooist creates body art, Marian uses a sterile tool containing microscopic needles which penetrate the skin, impregnating the area with colour.

However, the medical tool will only penetrate the outer layers of skin, which can mean the colour will fade quicker than a regular tattoo. It is common that patients return for a touch up.

The pain-free procedure can last up to 30 minutes, but Marian insists it can have lasting and life-changing effects.

"Those who have had the surgery, when they look in the mirror they now feel they are complete," she said.

"That's what my patients say to me - it's the icing on the cake. It completes the whole process of the experience they have gone through.

"I think it gives them confidence because they do lose a lot of confidence going through the whole cancer process. It gives them confidence back to feel that they're womanly again.

"The complete procedure makes a lot of ladies feel more confident, they feel normal again - it's like they have got their boob back."

She added the surgery is particularly beneficial to single women in fledgling relationships, or in the first stages of meeting a new partner.

"Single women often say to me 'gosh if I meet someone how am I going to show them this, what will they think?' - reconstruction gives them that boost to think 'I am happy and I look great'," she said.

Since having the cosmetic procedure Christine said she felt "normal" again.

"I went to Marks and Spencers," she said. "It was a sale, but I must have bought about 20 bras."

But she insisted her strength was fostered by her husband of 45 years who promised to love her unconditionally, with or without a breast.

She said: "He wouldn't have bothered if it had or hadn't been done.

"He said he would love me with or without a boob."

Marian said that all those who undergo a mastectomy including breast cancer patients and teenagers with developmental problems are eligible for reconstructive surgery.

She warns it is important both men and women carry out self-examinations to check for changes in their breasts as well as regular screenings, which can detect malignant tumours not always obvious during visual and physical inspections.

"It's not just lumps that people should be looking out for when they are doing self-examination," she urged. "They need to be looking for changes in the general contours of the breast. Is the nipple suddenly different? Is there any change?"

Christine is adamant she would have not lived to tell her story if not for a screening programme which detected a cancerous lump buried deep within her breast.

She insists: "Without that screening I would not be here now."