What not to say

Just as I do not go around thinking about my cancer all the time, there are times when I feel … More

Lifesaving Poems: Clare Best’s ‘The bookbinder’

A year ago I went to hear Clare Best read from her extraordinary book Excisions (Waterloo Press, 2011). Clare … More

Duty PsychiatristHe nods, and looks serious.Would you like to tell mea bit more about that?And she sighs, blurred and … More

TamoxifenMy doctor’s given me a massive canof elephant repellent. I’m to sprayit, after washing, on my skin. It willsubstantially reduce … More

Let Evening Come Let the light of late afternoon shine through chinks in the barn, moving up the bales as … More

Love for Now did not begin with an idea but an illness. As I have written elsewhere, there wasn’t a plan. I … More

Towards the end of my treatment for cancer in 2006 I had one of the most profound conversations of my … More

A friend of mine drew my attention via Twitter this week to an article detailing Robert Peston’s thoughts on his … More

Nine days after I was told that my chemotherapy treatment was not working in April 2006 the doctors discovered the … More

Seven years ago this is what happened halfway through my treatment for non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I went for a midway scan … More

EraThe twenty-second day of March two thousand and threeI left home shortly after eight thirtyon foot towards the City. I … More

Seven years ago today, the date in the photograph above was the day I knew had cancer. By this … More

When I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma nearly seven years ago the aspect of telling people I dreaded most was … More

The chances are, more of us are mortal than have multiple orgasms -Violet Weingarten, Intimations of Mortality When I was diagnosed … More

If there is one difference I hope to make with Love for Now book it is to challenge the overwhelming … More

I began writing Love for Now, my journal-memoir of diagnosis and treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2006, one week before I … More

May the Silence Break Because you do not speakI know the shockof water encountering a rock. Supremacy of silence is … More

I never thought I would actually get to hear the word ‘discharge’ at the haematology unit where I was treated for non-Hodgkin’s … More