Colin Gent, 56, is co-owner of Medical Thermal Imaging North West, a Liverpool practice that uses a hi-tech scanner to detect the cause of pain or disease. This was his day:

5:30am: Being a morning person, I naturally wake early. Once I am up, I head straight to the spare room where I begin my Transcendental Meditation. This is a regular ritual of mine, which I have been practising now for more than 20 years. I find it’s a great way to start the day as it really invigorates me and sets me up for the challenging day ahead.

6:30am: My usual breakfast consists of a bowl of organic porridge with a side plate of fresh fruit and a large cup of boiled water with lemon. My daughter, Sophie, and my wife, Margaret, usually join me half-way through, and we briefly catch up before we all head off to work.

7:30am: My first port of call for the day is the home office, to check my emails and appointments for the day before I get on the road. I call a few clients before I leave to discuss any outstanding reports. It is really important that we respond promptly to all our clients to ensure they do not have a prolonged or anxious waiting period for results.

9:00am: I grab my coat and head off to the practice, which is based at Rodney Street, in Liverpool city centre. I prefer to leave the house at this time to ensure I avoid the school run and general morning rush-hour traffic. The journey from Heswall at this time usually takes me around 30 minutes.

9:30am: A conference call with Bill Bradbury, who is our representative and the head of Meditherm in Europe.

10:15am: An appointment with our printer, Impressions, in Oxton. These meetings are extremely important to me as I like to see the quality of all our new marketing collateral, which is so vital for the business. I head straight to an appointment with my PR agency.

12pm: I have lunch with my daughter, Sophie, at the Anglican Cathedral. Over lunch, Sophie, who is also a qualified clinical thermographer, updates me with any information from the practice that I might have somehow missed.

1pm: Off to a meeting in Wavertree with our website designers, Which Door, to outline and develop the website redesign. New podcasts and video content are also on the agenda today.

2:30pm: Back to the office to prepare for a client, who is undergoing a full body screening today. This usually takes around an hour to perform with a brief meeting with the client afterwards. Being a clinical thermographer, this is the aspect of the job I enjoy the most. I take pleasure in spending time with the client and providing them with any support and guidance.

4pm: I manage to grab a quick glass of water and piece of fruit while catching up on my emails. I make a few phone calls to try and squeeze some meetings in to my busy diary for next week.

6pm: There are three back-to-back appointments with clients scheduled tonight, which either myself or Sophie will conduct.

Before the clients arrive, we have a short briefing meeting to outline each client’s individual needs.

8:30pm: After a busy day I head home with my daughter, Sophie. Thursday is our extended hours evening, which we operate to give our clients more flexibility. There is never much traffic at this time in the evening, so we are usually home quickly. Once home, we sit down at the table and my wife, Margaret, joins us whilst we eat and ave a general catch-up on the day’s events.

10pm: I am currently in the process of writing a novel, which seems to take up most of my free time now.

If am not too tired after work, I try and lock myself away in my office for an hour or so to dedicate some time to writing.

Afterwards, as a creature of habit, I like to wind down and complete the day by having a meditation session, after which I have a cup of Indian Vata tea and get into bed.