A government minister has this weekend spoken of her fight to survive breast cancer.

Melanie Johnson, a minister at the Department of Trade and Industry, has told The House Magazine of her determination to beat the disease that killed both her grandmother and her aunt.

Johnson, who has continued to work as a minister, needed three operations, chemotherapy and radiotherapy following her diagnosis last autumn.

"I was surprised, like anyone else would be, when I was diagnosed with cancer," she said.

"To receive the diagnosis that you have cancer is a shock. It happens to other people but not to you."

The Hatfield MP, who is the mother of three children, will undergo a course of radiotherapy over the summer as a precaution.

"It was obviously terrible news, but eventually good news because I've been given the all clear, so I'm very pleased to be in the position of having radiotherapy as a precaution, and not expecting to have any other treatment," she said.

"I think you share an enormous amount with all those other people who have had cancer. It makes you very conscious that there are a lot of other people in a similar position to you.

"In the case of breast cancer that's 35,000 women each year."

The minister praised NHS staff who had offered a lot of support and the work of patient groups which had led to improvements in treatment.

"It's been good from the point of view of the care I've received, the standard has been fantastic. I feel very lucky to have the treatment that I've received as a patient.

"Patients with a variety of cancers get very good treatment now, because the service is much more focused on the patient - partly as a result of the work that patients' groups have done over the years, and then the response of the medical and nursing professions towards those efforts," she said.

She was also keen to highlight the stigma that still surrounds breast cancer.

"A lot of people have said to me that they're very glad I said publicly I've had breast cancer and a mastectomy, because I think that there is still a feeling that it's a hidden disease and people are petrified of it and don't want to speak about it."

Johnson remains positive about her future - adding that her illness was not an experience she wanted to repeat.

"Everybody who has a problem with cancer worries about it recurring. But, equally well, I always feel you could fall under the proverbial bus tomorrow," she said.

"It would be wrong to say I don't worry about it at all, I think that would be impossible, but you can't tell what the future holds.

"You ought to take each day as it comes as much as you can - there's not much point in worrying about what the future is going to bring."

"If anything cancer just makes you think you've got to make the most of the opportunities you've got. It teaches you how important life is."