Politically speaking, the Tory party is Italy: a rag-tag grouping of warring factions so busy arguing and briefing against each other I wouldn't trust them to agree what day of the week it is, let alone reach a consensus on electing a new leader. People keep talking about Britain heading the same way as Greece or Italy.

But we're already there.

We must never forget the estimated 35,000 women living with metastatic breast cancer, or the 32 women who die prematurely every day. I'd had what scientists call a ‘pathological complete response'. It felt like a miracle.

And that's because, understandably, people want what they voted for. The Tories are fast catching up.

But even assuming by some miracle that they could agree on someone, it wouldn't help in the wider country. Italy, of course, has practically had a new leader each year since World War II. Which, let's be honest, was not this.

In a few short weeks, she has turned the party of Churchill and Thatcher into a laughing stock — and pretty much guaranteed a Labour landslide at the next election. She hasn't just made a fool of herself: she's made fools of all those who voted Conservative at the last election.

After a course of radiotherapy I was prescribed letrozole, which my oncologist explained was now regarded as the more effective alternative to tamoxifen, the drug which had been the standard hormone therapy.

His revitalisation of ancient practices has made him a phenomenon. In 2010, he set the record for longest time in full-body contact with ice at one hour and 44 minutes (it now stands at three hours and 28 seconds). Wim Hof is a Dutch guru-like figure.

Wise Tory heads know this. They know that the next two years are not really about delivering on manifesto commitments and preparing to fight an election in the hope of winning a fifth term — although they will of course go through the motions.

The question is: why?

Improving your mental health is one reason — and then there's the constant fight against expanding waistlines due to box-set binges, takeaway deliveries and too much sitting around engaging in social media.

The party is so far out of whack, so far gone in terms of credibility, he or she is doomed to failure.

And if that's the case, then why bother? If you've already written off the car, why go to the effort of changing a tyre? So really, it doesn't matter who replaces Truss.

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But despite the recent backlash at the clip, in which they took on a 'Countdown Challenge' inspired by the Channel 4 show, the group have been online royalty for years, with girlfriends and fiancées of the influencers being equally as loved and revered by the fans.

Trouble is, it doesn't look like they can even manage that.

Every MP and minister I speak to is racked with indecision, partly because they are in something like a state of shock — but mostly because they are searching for a solution that doesn't exist.

Besides, Sunak was the runner-up in the original contest that gave us Truss. He lost the final membership vote, of course — but he won the MPs' ballot by 137 to 113.

And since the one thing on which everyone seems to agree is that nobody wants another contest, it stands to reason he has a strong claim.

Once wrapped up in winter wetsuit, boots, gloves and unflattering hood, the cold sea doesn't seem so intimidating. ‘I think coasteering is one of the purest forms of being in the water,' he says. For the latter, we drive to Mousehole Harbour, down the tight cobbled lanes. Our guide Chris is upbeat and reassuring.

We aren't there yet, but according to Cancer Research UK, ten-year breast cancer survival rates in the UK have nearly doubled since the 1970s, from four in ten women surviving their disease beyond ten years to around eight in ten now.

Other types of breast cancer are seeing similar advances with the introduction of immunotherapy drugs and advances in genetic testing of tumours, which can help doctors identify women who don't need chemotherapy at all and spare them its gruelling side-effects.

Not because I think he's the best man for the job (or because my ex-husband has told me to: strange as it may seem, I do occasionally have opinions of my own).

It's because he's the one who got us into this mess in the first place by pushing out Boris. If it were up to me, I'd choose Rishi Sunak.

While an oncology professor tried to explain that it was a fast-growing, aggressive cancer and that I would need chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy — the whole shebang — I kept saying that I really shouldn't be there, that my family history really wasn't that bad. Fear does strange things to your brain.

I was a single mother with a 13-year-old daughter.

I will never forget the first few weeks which followed; waking up drenched in sweat, adrenalin charging through my veins; the almost primeval fear that my life was about to end.