The guide has been produced with the co-operation of the NHS and the support of Breast Cancer Care, the UK's leading support organisation for people with breast cancer. It paints a picture of how breast cancer services are performing overall. Reassuringly, the answer is not bad. In many cases, the information will reassure you that your local services are performing in line with accepted standards. However in others, it may point to the opposite conclusions in which case you may want to talk to your GP about how to best look after yourself. That may mean taking additional precautions yourself, it may mean asking probing questions of the doctors looking after you, or it may mean trying to access services differently.

What is important is that patients do not feel they are at the mercy of a health system but that they are in control of their own future. Some people may want to do nothing more than hand this control over to the professionals. Others, however, will want to ask questions and get answers. Either way, the patient should have the choice. That is what this supplement is for.