Following two miscarriages in six months, baby-making was fast becoming an obsessive pursuit for me and my husband. So when one night I discovered a lump in my left breast, we both hopefully assumed it to be pregnancy-induced bust-changes – not stage-three breast cancer.

My first visit to the family doctor came days before we went on holiday. “I’m sure it’s a cyst,” she said. “It will have disappeared by the time you get back.” But, two weeks later, the lump had begun to worry me. It was hardening, painful to the touch and, frankly, ruining the line of my spaghetti-strap summer dresses.