Sarah Smith won’t win Dover and Deal for the Lib Dems. So why, having been diagnosed with stage-three ovarian cancer, is she continuing to campaign? Her stepsister, author and political journalist Catherine Mayer, follows her on a profound journey
My stepsister Sarah had always been skilled at time management, balancing family life with the insistent sleeve-tugging of her small businesses and her husband’s construction company, all the while holding down a series of demanding day jobs and pursuing a passion for further education. Then she decided to stand for parliament.
As a veteran political journalist, I felt compelled to point out she’d not just be frittering away days but a future shimmering with promise. If Westminster isn’t exactly overrun with women, much less comprehensive school-educated behavioural economists with a doctoral thesis to write, that’s in part because the institution does far too little to accommodate difference. The hours are long and unpredictable. The culture is one part gentleman’s club to two parts public-school dormitory after lights out. There are few lonelier sights than an MP who doesn’t fit the regulation mould.
Averse to wasting time, Sarah suggested she lay out her political journey for me at her Tuesday chemo session
Sarah had only a 20% chance of surviving for five years – the full term of the UK’s incoming government
I can ask questions other candidates might not and raise perspectives that make people think
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