Why aren’t you dead yet?

Jörn Cann wasn’t my friend. He was my doctor. He was famous before we even met him as the doctor … More

Curtains

The room is small, the size of a student bedsit. An enormous grey sofa takes up most of the space. … More

Don’t forget, this is inside us every day -Stephen Berg This is not happening. It happened. Past tense. One … More

Then this. We are sitting with hospital mugs of tea, in the Quiet Room. We are all leaning forward, listening … More

This is the day we go the hospital as usual. We have banter with Jörn and Nadine while they inject … More

Dear Anthony Two cycles down, just six more to go. You are not looking bad, considering. The belligerent doctor who … More

Dear Ant So you’ve had your first chemotherapy treatment. That first night, when you came home and carried the sick … More

Dear Ant Isn’t it strange, how quickly you notice your passing from one world into the next? One minute … More

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

Riddance has been reviewed by cancer patients, and former patients, under the aegis of Macmillan Cancer Support. You can find out … More

Dear Anthony I’m writing to let you know what you already know in your bones, as you put it much … More

An old friend of mine wrote to me the other day, out of the blue, to tell me about … More

I’m grateful to you, you see. I wanted to tell you. –Raymond Carver (‘For Tess’) A kind, wise man once … More

A year ago I published Riddance, a book of poems, with Worple Press. It concerns my diagnosis and experience of cancer … More

Today is the seventh anniversary of the day I was told I was officially in remission from cancer. The popular … More

Thank you to Julia McGuinness for posting this interview with me on her Creative Connections blog. In it I discuss … More

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

Andrew Neilson has reviewed Riddance in Magma poetry magazine. He describes it as a ‘a moving, often harrowing, book, while also … More