Professionalsickgirl

I’m looking to speak to men and women who live with a lifelong condition, be it asthma, diabetes, MS, arthritis or Cystic Fibrosis (and many others besides), who would like to share their story as part of a book I am writing.  I want to shed light on the person behind the health condition; the untold ways in which illness affects all areas of our lives, especially in love, work and health. If you’d like to take part, please leave your details in the contact form at the foot of the page. I look forward to hearing from you!

You can read the synopsis below, and an extract here.

I live with sickness, always have and likely always will.  It isn’t always obvious and it’s rarely pretty, but 30 years with a set of lungs that sound like they’re from a second hand car-dealer in Dagenham, a malfunctioning pancreas and a body with an unpredictable shelf life, teaches you some lessons. The friends I’ve met with chronic illness have taught me even more.

There are many sensationalized stories of illness; life or death accounts of people who have only a few months left. While shocking to the core, these stories are only one chapter. We see illness as something we are either cured from or killed by, not as something to live with.

I think it’s time that changed; for the millions living with chronic illness, their families, friends, lovers and the medical community who cares for them. Drawing from a range of experiences -both mine and others- I tell the stories that show the common ground between conditions, not what separates them. Nor is it a ‘how to’ for life after diagnosis; I don’t dwell on the daily details of living with illness.

A book of three parts, Health Love and Work, with six chapters in each. Covering themes like equality in relationships, finding purposeful careers and the importance of self-care in all senses of the word, it’s written for anyone who is interested in a unique perspective on modern life.