An upcoming book, Tea & Chemo, recounts a local patient’s experience of cancer, and raises money to help support the work of our wonderful team at the Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre.
When Jackie Buxton was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 45, she lurched between the crippling fear that the cancer had spread, and great comfort that she was one of the lucky ones because the medical profession aimed to cure her.
Determined to learn as much as possible about her condition, Jackie devoured patient information leaflets and online articles. But what she really wanted to read was the account of an ordinary person being treated for cancer who, crucially, emerged on the other side still smiling.
Unable to find anything, Jackie decided to do what she does best: write. Detailing her experiences in a blog, she soon found that people began to write to her saying that her blog had helped them in their own struggle with cancer. Delighted to be having an impact on others, Jackie realised that she had much more to say.
What started as a blog grew into the book that Jackie wanted to read when she was diagnosed: “the truth coated with positivity and optimism”. Tea & Chemo was born.
Jackie was treated at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust’s very own Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre, and to give something back to the team who supported her so well, she’s now chosen to donate one third of the book profits to the centre.
Jackie said, “The team of staff at the centre were responsible for turning the emotionally and physically difficult experience of having chemo into something almost pleasant – honestly. I never felt as secure and cared for as when I was attending the Centre every three weeks. Indeed, when I was pronounced unsuitable for the injection of Herceptin to be administered at home, and instead would need to continue attending the hospital every three weeks to receive it intravenously, nobody was more pleased than me. I’d like some of the proceeds of Tea and Chemo to go to the department to show my gratitude to all the staff and volunteers as well as to attempt to do something small for all cancer sufferers and their loved ones.”
Tea & Chemo: Fighting Cancer, Living Life, is published by Urbane Publications and will be available from book stores and on-line (paperback and eBook) from 23rd November 2015, priced £7.99.
For more information about Jackie, please visit her blog (http://jackiebuxton.blogspot.com) or her website (www.jackiebuxton.com).