"I had to ring my private secretary in the Foreign Office saying 'can you cancel meetings because I need to go home', and he said 'is everything okay minister?' I tried to say Susie might have cancer, I just couldn't get the words out, I couldn't speak - I like to talk, but I just couldn't speak. I said I'll text you, and, you know, this organisation is amazing. Liz Truss was my boss at the time, she was absolutely amazing. I went home, Susie and I talked it through, and I tried to ring again to explain what was going on - and I still couldn't say a word. For the next couple of hours everything was done on WhatsApp, and it really hit me, I never felt anything like that before."