When the managing director of MediaCom Claudine Collins discovered she had breast cancer, she had what could be considered an unusual reaction. She told us, “My consultant said you are going to need an operation. So I looked at my diary and said ‘OK how about the 15th of January next year.’ It was October. He firmly said no and booked her in for treatment the following week. “Looking back, I was in denial and literally didn’t believe it because I had no symptoms.”

“I had just started at artistic director at Garrard in September 2012, and in early November I was going on my first work trip with my then CEO to Doha to meet the partners out there — it was a big deal. The night before I left I found a lump in my left breast. You are told breast cancer is usually a pea-sized lump that is unmovable, but it wasn’t like that — it was flat but quite big and noticeable”