Former England Test captain and cricket administrator Sir Andrew Strauss went into bat for Chai Cancer Care at a breakfast fundraiser in the City on Wednesday attended by over 100 people.

In support of Chai, and the foundation that Sir Andrew established in memory of his wife Ruth, the former cricket star had a candid conversation with writer, broadcaster and cricket lover Giles Coren.

He recalled that in 2017, “we went through the absolute horror and shock that Ruth had a) cancer; b) non-smoking lung cancer; and c) it was stage four. It was hugely confronting for me and my sons Sam and Luca.

“My response was to concentrate on living. Ruth’s was to say: ‘I can’t concentrate on living unless I know you and the boys are taken care of’.”

The Ruth Strauss Foundation offers professional support to families preparing for the death of a parent from cancer and promotes awareness of the need for research into non-smoking lung cancers.

On cricketing matters, Sir Andrew said he approved of “Bazball”, the more aggressive approach to Test cricket adopted by England under new head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes.

After the crushing Ashes defeat, players had lacked confidence. But they had bought into the reset, having been told not to worry about the match situation or losing their place in the team.

In any case, Sir Andrew felt the reaction to England’s performances had always been binary and there needed to be a more nuanced assessment.

Chai Cancer Care chair Louise Hager noted the “significant synergy and many shared aims” of her charity and the Ruth Strauss Foundation.

“Both were established in response to personal painful experience of what it means to live with the impact of a cancer diagnosis and both were founded to fill an unmet need.”