British writer, broadcaster, and agony aunt, born in London, UK. She trained as a nurse and midwife in London, and followed a nursing career until becoming a medical correspondent for a women's magazine, both as Ruth Martin (196675) and under her own name (197587). She contributed an advice column to national newspapers (197391), and has made many appearances on radio and television to advise on family problems. She has published several books dealing with sex, marriage, motherhood, and family health, and a number of novels, including Cottage Hospital (1963, as Sheila Brandon), The House on the Fen (1967), The Burning Summer (1972), Postscripts (1990), and The Inheritance (1998).
Claire Rayner (born Claire Berenice Berk to Jewish parents in London on January 22, 1931) is a British journalist best-known for her role for many years as an agony aunt. Rayner is a noted humanist and has served as President of the British Humanist Association. She remains a Vice-President of the British Humanist Association, a Distinguished Supporter of the Humanist Society of Scotland and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.
Breast cancer patient
Rayner was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002 at the age of 70. She had a simple radical mastectomy and a prophylactic mastectomy but did not require any chemotherapy or radiotherapy because the cancer had not spread to the lymph nodes.
Rayner has become a breast cancer activist in order to promote the work of the charity Cancer Research UK.
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