WHEN cancer strikes is when you need the support of family and friends.

Having them with you when you’re worried about the possibilities, when you’re diagnosed or when treatment starts can make all the difference to how you, as a patient, feels.

So, banning male partners and friends from a breast screening clinic sounds like a backward and unhelpful move. At a centre in Brighton, men are not allowed in the waiting room to “protect privacy.”

This is despite the waiting area being separate to changing rooms, all with locks and the scan itself which is not visible from there.

Just having someone of your own with you gives support and can also lessen the stress of this experience yet husbands, boyfriends and friends are not allowed. This sounds like madness and takes being PC to a ridiculous level.

I just hope the likely outcry makes the authorities think again.