October is Breast Cancer Care's 'Breast Cancer Awareness Month', and a recent report from the breast cancer care charity states how thousands of patients diagnosed with secondary breast cancer may be needlessly suffering from debilitating physical pain.

In fact, their survey showed that the majority of patients coping with the condition - where cancer has spread, and can be controlled but not cured - were experiencing pain, ranging from the severe to constant flu-like symptoms.

Diana Jupp, the charity's director of services and campaigns, said it was vital the issue was given a higher profile in the health agenda, so patients living with the diagnosis got the help they needed. Dr. Emma Pennery, Breast Cancer Care's clinical director, said, "No one should live with unnecessary pain or without the information they need to make decisions about their own health."

I know all about living with constant pain from my own spinal injuries that resulted from accidents when I was younger. I live with chronic pain on a daily basis, and from this, I developed Breathwork's Mindfulness-based Pain Management (MBPM) so that other people can regain their lives from constant pain like I have been able to.

Meditation and mindfulness aren't a magic cure, they won't make the pain of cancer, disease and injury magically go away. But, what they offer is a means of reducing the secondary suffering – the tension, anxiety and depression, which can not only increase our primary, physical pain, but also this secondary suffering can be harder to bear than our physical pain.

I know this because, even though I have a degenerative condition and have lived with chronic pain and partial paraplegia for over 30 years, my own quality of life has been transformed through mindfulness and the pain from my conditions does not take over my life. Breathworks has been working hard with universities, hospitals and research organisations to build an evidence-base showing it the effectiveness of mindfulness to help those living with pain.

I would love to see mindfulness offered to all those living with the pain of secondary breast cancer and Breathworks is hopeful that it will be running trials with other forms of cancers in 2015.

My book, which has just won an award at the BMA Book Awards for Popular Medicine, Mindfulness for Health, gives clear guidance and an eight week mindful programme for anyone living with pain. I would very much like to think that anyone suffering with breast cancer pain could find some relief from its pages.