My husband has an amazing specialist who notifies his patients of their results as soon as they become available. It is always good to get the all clear sooner rather than later when one is under surveillance after cancer treatment.

I, too, try to minimise anxiety. Take the recent case of a tradesman with a questionable chest X-Ray for which CT scan is recommended.

He is an ex-smoker. The anomaly seen on X-ray is shown to be nothing more than an anatomical aberration of a blood vessel, something he has had from birth. He did not have lung cancer.

I text him the results immediately. He and his family have been in full disaster mode.