Actually I didn't like middle-class bods like John Diamond and Ruth Picardie making endless columns and books out of their cancer either, and they had less financial cause. I react to look-at-me-I'm-dying copy very badly; it feels like emotional blackmail and I do prefer the "British reserve" attitude which caused my father, when the doctor during his last illness asked him to estimate the pain he was in on an ascending scale of 1 to 10, to reply "about 4". The doctor looked at me and I said "make that 8 at least".

I find it very difficult to believe many people were unaware there was such a thing as cervical cancer until it was mentioned in connection with this. It isn't as if people don't mention cancer as they used not to; we seem to hear of it all the time and I'm continually getting and ignoring invites to go for mammograms (too bloody painful by half) and smears. Are people really going to be aware it exists when they weren't before - in that case, which planet have they been on?