Glasgow-based Sue Faber, who has spent the past ten years campaigning to raise awareness of breast cancer after her mother died from the disease, has scooped Cancer Research UK’s “Flame of Hope” outstanding achievement award. It recognises remarkable fundraising efforts.

Ms Faber, 46, who underwent a mastectomy in 2006 after testing positive for the BrCA1 gene mutation, meaning she had an 85 per cent chance of developing breast cancer, raised close to £37,000 for the charity by completing a six-day walk with her two sisters, who also had mastectomies.

She tells People: “The walk helped show that breast cancer can affect so many of us. You don’t have to sit and wait for it to happen. You can find out whether you have the gene and have surgery, which doesn’t have to change your life.”