A day he won’t have

I had bumped into a friend at the cash machine. We greeted each other, as we always do, with a … More

Open letter to Arthur Frank (on reading At the Will of the Body)

Dear Arthur Frank I’m writing to say thank you for your extraordinary book At the Will of the Body. It is … More

I am really bad at doing one thing. If I am chopping an onion, I am listening to the radio. … More

A Tuesday, appropriately. (Tuesday being the day I was formally diagnosed.) Poetic, it strikes me now. But at the time, … More

After they left, the house went very quiet. No one really knew about the quietness but me. I played a … More

The way I found out, just as with my diagnosis, was via a segment of a conversation about other things. … More

On certain afternoons I am certain it has come back. A twinge in my right side, where the pain … More

We walked into the brunt light, towards the hospital. The air was dry, February-cold. Traffic was going about its business. … More

‘I am so, so sorry.’ ‘You’re going to be fine.’ ‘Fight it, you know you’re a fighter.’ ‘Are we going … More

This is a momentous week. It marks the tenth anniversary of the day I was told I had cancer. To … More

The thing about having cancer was that it was pretty obvious what was going on. I had been feeling fairly … More

‘So you’re not going to write about it?’ ‘I’ve been writing about it for years. Two whole books of it! … More

I had bumped into a friend at the cash machine. We greeted each other, as we always do, with a … More

Let’s love today, the what we have now, this day, not today or tomorrow or yesterday, but this passing moment, … More

I am taking a break from writing brand new blog posts over the summer. Instead of posting new work I … More

What I want is to – to be present. That’s what I’ve learned. I want to strive for presence, now, … More

Tomorrow I will be taking part at the Wenlock Poetry Festival in an event with Roz Goddard. We will be … More

Nine years ago today I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells. Even though I have … More