Vicky begins on her mission of 'kicking cancer out of the closet' . She discusses the possibility of setting up a national cancer information service with her husband and a few close friends. Vicky moves from dream to reality when, after investigating what is already available, she perceives there is definitely a gap to be filled. Making it happen starts in October 1984 when she holds her first meeting with committed supporters. Vicky gives herself a year to launch it.

When Vicky's cancer friends told her about some of the unfeeling remarks and lack of understanding they had met from medical staff as well as acquaintances after their diagnosis, she had been shocked but not altogether surprised. She knew from her own experience that the cancer taboo persisted still, due largely to fear and ignorance. A few of her own friends had melted out of her life once they knew what was wrong with her. She understood too what it meant to be frightened of losing your job because of the nature of your illness, or being covertly made to feel guilty because it is assumed you must have either a 'cancer personality' or have committed some wrongdoing to have the disease.

She spoke and wrote scornfully about the myths surrounding cancer. In particular, she rejected the fatalism of believing that cancer invariably kills, a view she was pained to discover among some health professionals as well. Inevitably, this negative attitude has a detrimental effect on their relationship with their patients. Perhaps what disturbed her most was the conspiracy of silence surrounding cancer, as much within medical circles as without. Her many conversations with patients, on equal terms as just another patient, convinced her that it was a great mistake for doctors to assume that people with cancer coped better if they did not know too much about their disease and its prognosis. She knew she was not alone in her consuming need for good, clear and complete information. Her patient friends were just as needy, constantly begging her to explain the little they had been told by their doctors. Vicky found their desperation both heartrending and unacceptable.

Something must be done. She was determined, as she put it, to 'kick cancer out of the closet.' She began talking to friends about her idea of setting up a British Cancer Support Society. She found a sympathetic ear in Dr Robert Buckman who, having himself survived a life-threatening illness (not cancer) had recently found reason to reconsider his own view of the doctor patient relationship.

In early June 1984 Vicky was discussing her 'rather grand dream' with Dr Maurice Slevin, her oncologist who had become a good friend. He told her that it sounded like a great idea, but if it were that good why hadn't someone else come up with it? Or perhaps they had? Nothing daunted she took up his challenge to discover exactly what was available. Six days later she was back in his office reporting progress and even Maurice, who by this time knew Vicky as well as anyone, had to confess he was amazed by what she had achieved so far.

She had had another talk with Robert Buckman, written to fifteen cancer organisations, made appointments with several of them and spoken to many more people about her idea. By the end of June, only three weeks after she first broached the subject with Maurice, she had met and enthused many of the people who were to give her so much support and assistance in the following months and years. Cancer survivors, journalists, business people: few who met her could resist her spell. Her enthusiasm and absolute confidence that she could achieve her goals was disarming and infectious.

In July the pace hotted up. Maurice had given her the names of some eminent medical oncologists. Each introduction led to several more and she never missed an opportunity to make a useful contact. By the middle of July she had decided on a name for her organisation - BACUP standing for British Association of Cancer United Patients and their families and friends; she also wrote a punchy paper describing the aims of her projected organisation. Briefly, it would 'offer practical help, advice and information to patients and relatives. It would have charitable status; be located in central London and be run by professionals, both medical and non-medical.' For a full description see original mission statement. On Wednesday, 18th July a teacher gave Vicky her first donation for BACUP in pennies. Now she knew for certain that her dream was real.

'I recognised that she was one of these unusual beings who is highly motivated, clear-minded, decisive and absolutely able to do what she wanted to achieve. She had suffered through to her own personal conclusion and what she now had was a vision.'

These are the words of Andrew Phillips, a solicitor, who was approached by Vicky for legal advice. Having satisfied himself that she had done her homework and that her proposal did offer something genuinely new in the already crowded field of cancer charities, he told her that if she was serious about getting it up and running, then there could be no half measures. She could not expect to make a success of it by looking on it as something to do on the side with another person at the helm, while she continued her career. She would have to take full control and become the chairman and chief executive.

Vicky was taken aback by his suggestion. She was due to take up her GP traineeship in a few weeks time and anyway, what did she know about running an organisation? She had no managerial experience. All the same, and only after considerable thought and discussion, was she persuaded that she should lead the organisation. Her husband Tim promised her his full support, as ever, and slowly she won round her close friends to her point of view; their abiding concern was that it would take too much out of her. She gave up the idea of becoming a GP.

So it was that on 31st October 1984 the first BACUP Working Party Meeting was held in the Guild Room at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Present on this momentous occasion were twenty-nine people, handpicked by Vicky for their individual skills, experience and commitment to her aims. They included representatives from all the major cancer organisations, senior cancer doctors, city tycoons, journalists, and a few cancer survivors.

No one watching her perform that evening would have believed that it was the first time in her life that she had chaired such an event. She ran the meeting like a veteran: self-possessed and completely in control. Immediate and long-term objectives were agreed; the structure of the organisation as drawn up by Andrew Phillips was approved; Vicky was voted Chairman and Chief Executive; Maurice Slevin became Deputy Chairman and other leading doctors were elected heads of committees and trustees. Vicky had done brilliantly in persuading these eminent men to throw their hats into her ring. She needed their quality to be seen supporting her if she was to achieve the medical credibility she knew to be essential for BACUP's success.

The meeting ended on a high note. It was formally minuted that no more than a year from that day, BACUP was to be officially launched with its major services on line. The little woman sitting at the top of the table, 'sparking away' as Andrew Phillips said, 'with many more volts than the size of her battery indicated' positively crackled with her determination to deliver.