Claire is a moral philosopher, theologian, national expert on environmental and medical ethics, and director of the Westminster Abbey Institute which works to revitalise moral and spiritual values in public life.

2 years ago she was diagnosed with myeloma, an incurable cancer of the blood, with a stark prognosis that she’ll die in about 10 years.

Through the first year of brutal treatment, she wrote raw, honest letters to her siblings and a small group of friends, now published in the book ‘Miles to go before I sleep’. And, in doing so, Claire discovered that facing her own mortality was, in fact, surprisingly liberating.

She talked about what it’s like to have such a shocking diagnosis - how she confronted and continues to confront it; her revelations on pain and suffering and where God can be found and felt in it all.

And she’s very honest about faith not always being much of a ‘comfort’, as many would describe it in similar circumstances, but also the great strength she’s found, at the especially awful points, in being able to be seeringly honest with her closest friends, and asking them to pray for her, and the whole new plane of meaning she’s found in those liminal moments.