SIR – On Saturday morning I read a number of newspapers which contained interviews with the author Jackie Collins speaking about her life, books and her sister Joan.

She concluded by saying she refuses to ‘mourn people, because everybody dies, death and taxes you can’t avoid either’.

So it was a massive shock to hear on Sunday morning radio that Jackie had died of breast cancer.

The same day a neighbour was cycling from Manchester to Leeds to raise money for a cancer charity and to raise awareness of this brutal disease in which every year 55,000 are diagnosed in the UK and shows why breast cancer care work is so vital.

John Appleyard, Firthcliffe Parade, Liversedge