A few months ago, I met a friend for a coffee at a century-old dairy farm. Walking through the scenic grasslands, I noticed a knob on her upper torso. I wondered if a wire in her bra had come loose and was sticking out through her blouse, but I didn’t want to be caught staring. A few weeks later, she told me she had been diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer.

I know very little about this disease, or how I could support her, so I decided to fi nd out more.