BBC Breakfast’s Dr Rosemary Leonard has seen a lot of changes during her time as a GP, including a rise in people asking for counselling.

Her latest book, Doctor’s Notes, covers her life in her surgery as she recalls some of her most puzzling, and often humorous, cases.

“I’m very hard to shock,” Dr Leonard, 57, admits. “Surprised? Yes.”

Her book features a few raunchy tales, including questions of paternity, the insertion of an Easter egg in an intimate region, and issues involving manhood.

She’s also encountered her share of badly behaved, even violent patients during her 25 years as a GP.

“I’ve been thumped, I’ve been threatened. And the worst thing is the verbal abuse.

“I have a stalker at the moment who lives in Yorkshire, but the police have been very good,” she adds. “He’s seen me on telly and keeps writing letters to the surgery. There was a time when he started coming down to the surgery, which is when we started taking action. He rings up for appointments and the receptionists know who he is. But I don’t think he’s dangerous, I just think he’s mentally unwell.

“A couple of years ago, they had to take action and he had to be sectioned and it all stopped, but in the past six months it’s all started up again. It spooks me a little bit. The receptionists worry if I’m working late at night in the surgery on my own. In the winter I never walk home, I drive.”

But Dr Leonard has never considered moving because she loves her house in South London and the close community she’s involved with.

As well as being a GP, she’s also a regular broadcaster and medical writer. So how does she juggle media work with looking after her patients?

“The GP-ing is by far and away my regular day job. I must do 36 hours a week in the surgery. I’m a great believer in the NHS and it gives me better control over managing my patients,” she says.

“But if I’m needed in Salford, where BBC Breakfast is, I have to get the train the night before.”

Dr Leonard is currently writing another book, this time on the menopause, and there’s no sign of her slowing down as a GP or medical media commentator.