Discrimination was sometimes associated with the concept of stigma, as defined by the sociologist Erving Goffman: The phenomenon whereby an individual with an attribute which is deeply discredited by his/her society is rejected as a result of the attribute. The stigmatized person was set apart from those who perceived themselves as ‘normal’.

Sarah knew it now: she was stigmatized. In a society that valued youth and vitality, she knew that the sick and the weak had no place. She had been a person of power and agency. Now, she was tipping over into the opposite camp.

What could she do to counter it? She knew how to fight the illness, she had an armoury of treatments, and doctors at her side. But what remedy for exclusion? She was being gently pushed towards the exit, kept in solitary confinement. What could she do to reverse the process?

Yes, she would fight, but how? Take Johnson & Lockwood to court for discrimination? She would have to resign. If she left, she would have no help, no medical cover. How would she find another job? Who would take them on, her and her cancer? Could she set up her own firm? An attractive prospect, but she would need investors, and the banks would only lend to a person in good health, she knew that. And besides, which of the firm’s clients would follow her? She could promise nothing, not even that she would be there in a year’s time to defend their interests.

She remembered the dreadful business a few years ago – one of her colleagues at the firm had defended a woman who had worked as a medical secretary for a doctors’ surgery. She had complained of headaches, and spoken to the doctor, her employer, who had examined her. He made her undergo tests, then called her in to tell her she was fired: she had cancer. The official version was that she had been made redundant to cut costs, but no one was fooled. The case lasted three years, and the woman had won. She had died shortly afterwards.

The discrimination being enacted against Sarah was less brutal. It did not speak its name. It was subtle, and by the same token, tricky to prove. But it was real nonetheless.