All families have their traditions. In ours, we tend to have big families, with numerous siblings – and a lot of cancer. My father was diagnosed with cancer when he was 44 years old. They found it in his lungs, did a biopsy and took part of his lung out. I assumed he had lung cancer as he painted cars and smoked cigarettes. And, I thought he was going to be okay.

I was wrong on both counts. But it was many years before I learned the truth.