The COVID-19 pandemic has changed all our lives overnight. People have lost loved ones or their jobs, and thousands of businesses have closed. We’ve never experienced a situation like this before and no-one knows when it will end, yet we attempt to navigate our way through as best we can. But, while it’s natural to feel tremendous loss and confusion, it’s also important to have hope. Life might be different, but we’ll have learnt a lot of valuable lessons about ourselves and our society.

We spoke to four women whose lives have been transformed by a crisis.

What I learnt from…

A LIFE-THREATENING ILLNESS

‘To think you can control everything is an illusion’

Rachel Haynes, 53, runs a creative agency in High Wycombe.

I was 45 when I was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer (in July 2011). I’d been experiencing bloating, abdominal pain and changes in my bowel habits for about a year, but I just thought I had irritable bowel syndrome. It was when I started losing weight and passing blood