Each year, almost twenty million people worldwide receive the grim diagnosis of cancer, yet few are prepared for the difficult emotional journey ahead. Shortly after Dr. Charles Hayter graduated as a cancer specialist, his father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. As with many doctors, he found that his medical training did not prepare him for the anguish and turmoil he witnessed in himself, his patients, and their loved ones - anguish often worsened by the stigma and shame surrounding cancer and radiation. In Cancer Confidential, Dr. Hayter shares behind-the-scenes stories of people dealing with cancer and death - often through avoidance, denial, and conflict, but also as shining examples of quiet courage, resilience, and humour. The backdrop for the stories is the specialty of radiation oncology. One in three cancer patients will receive radiation therapy, yet it remains a mysterious and often maligned area of medicine. Told in a vivid, dramatic style, Cancer Confidential sheds light on this poorly understood field and reveals intimate stories of individuals and their families in difficult circumstances. It will lend insight, compassion, and support to anyone facing the diagnosis of cancer.

'A bracing, heart-lifting read. Patterson is a superb writer' Observer OUTSIDE, THE SKY IS BLUE is a heart-breaking yet also truly joyful and wise memoir of growing up, of dealing with mental health and illness, and of what it means to be part of a family that, despite everything, is able to laugh and to love. 'A memoir about the loss of faith and hope. A memoir about the loss of faith and hope. The book journeys to dark places but it's too honest and well written to be dispiriting. She perseveres in her quest to understand' Guardian When Christina Patterson's brother Tom died suddenly, she faced the harrowing task of clearing out his house. Tom had always been the one who held on to the family treasures and memories, but now Christina had to sift through boxes of letters, photos and belongings, not just of Tom's, but of their parents and their older sister, Caroline. The contents of those boxes tell the story of a young couple who decide to swap a glamorous diplomatic life in Rome for a housing estate in Surrey. But their new suburban, happy life, is increasingly disrupted by Caroline's erratic behaviour. As she is diagnosed with schizophrenia, Tom seeks solace in sport and Christina in a youth club where she hopes to meet boys, but finds God instead. It doesn't help her in her quest for romance. 'A hymn to optimism, and a beacon of unflagging hope' iPaper 'This is a joyful book. Despite the sorrows, there is a determined joy to this tale, a pattern of finding the good despite the bad, of turning to face the sun so the shadows fall behind' Dr Kathryn Mannix 'She writes beautifully - crisp, yet emotional and page-turning. For me, it is something about her clarity and brutal honesty in describing both heartbreak and heart bursting life and love. In the end it is only the love that matters' Julia Samuel, author of Grief Works

A father reflects on the rich life of his son, who died suddenly at twenty-six after living with schizophrenia. On the morning of Boxing Day 2009, the poet Fraser Sutherland and his wife found their son, Malcolm, dead in his bedroom in their house. He was twenty-six and had died from a seizure of unknown cause. Malcolm had been living with schizophrenia since the age of seventeen. Fraser's respectful narration of Malcolm's life -- his happiness as well as his sufferings, his heroic efforts to calm his troubled mind, his readings, his writings, his experiments with religious thought -- is a master writer's attempt to give shape and dignity to his son's life, to memorialize it as more than an illness. And in writing about his son's life, Fraser creates his own self-effacing memoir -- the memoir of a parent's resilience through years of stressful care. Fraser Sutherland, one of Canada's finest poetry critics and essayists, died shortly after completing this book. A RARE MACHINES BOOK

The bestselling poet Malcolm Guite chooses forty poems from across the centuries that express the universal experience of loss and reflects on them in order to draw out the comfort, understanding and hope they offer. Some of the poems will be familiar, many will be new, but together they provide a sure companion for the journey across difficult terrain. Some of Malcolm's own poetry is included, written out of his work as a priest with the dying and the bereaved and giving to the volume a powerful authenticity. The choice of forty poems is significant and reflects an ancient practice still observed in some European and Middle Eastern societies of taking extra-special care of a bereaved person in the forty days following a death - our word quarantine come from this. They explore the nature and the risk of love, the pain of letting go and look toward glimpses of resurrection.

To find solace from grief, we have always turned to the written word. With poetry and prose spanning continents, religions and cultures, this moving anthology examines loss, celebrates lives well lived and offers words of consolation. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning clothbound pocket-sized classics with gilt edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited by Becky Brown. Helpfully divided into different sections, Funeral Readings and Poems features many famous poems such as 'Funeral Blues' by W. H. Auden and 'How do I Love Thee?' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, alongside comforting prose from the likes of Louisa May Alcott and Kenneth Graham.

'This is a wise, lucid, beautiful book that will help you be less afraid and more alive. Read it as soon as you can; it will change you.' Dr Lucy Kalanithi Death is not waiting for us at the end of a long road. Death is always with us, in the marrow of every passing moment, a secret teacher hiding in plain sight, helping us to discover what matters most in life. So begins Frank Ostaseski's stirring book, The Five Invitations, an exhilarating meditation on the meaning of life and how maintaining an ever-present awareness of death can bring us closer to our truest selves. In his thirty-plus years as a companion to the dying, Frank Ostaseski has sat on the precipice of death with more than a thousand people. A renowned teacher of compassionate care-giving, Ostaseski has distilled the lessons gleaned over the course of his career into a powerful and inspiring exploration of the essential wisdom dying has to impart to all of us about how to forge rich and meaningful lives. The 'Five Invitations' - Welcome Everything, Push Away Nothing; Bring Your Whole Self to the Experience; Don't Wait; Find a Place of Rest in the Middle of Things; and Cultivate a Don't Know Mind - show how death can be the guide we need to wake up fully to our lives. This stunning, unforgettable book offers a radical path to transformation.

'You will find all of life in this' Deborah Levy After the death of her partner of thirty-two years, Lisa Appignanesi was thrust into a state striated by rage and superstition in which sanity felt elusive. Then, too, the cultural and political moment seemed to collude with her condition: everywhere people were dislocated and angry. In this electrifying and brave examination of an ordinary enough death and its aftermath, Everyday Madness uses all Lisa Appignanesi's evocative and analytic powers to scrutinize her own and our society's experience of grieving. With searing honesty, lashed by humour, she navigates us onto the terrain of childhood, the way it forms our feelings of love and hate, and steers us towards a less tumultuous version of the everyday.

Gently, with warm, consoling, and practical guidance, Doug Manning addresses the painful, often disorientation aftermath of the death of a loved one, helping the bereaved cope with the emotions and confront the decisions that are an inevitable part of this time of radical life adjustment. Beginning with the premise that "grief is not an enemy; it is a friend. It is the natural process of walking through the hurt and growing through the walk," Manning helps readers face up to grief, move through it, and learn to live again.

With the first shock of loss, a survivor is faced with what seems like an overwhelming number of arrangements that must be made immediately. Don't Take My Grief Away is a complete, helpful handbook covering such important areas as the choice of a minister, family dynamics during such stressful times, and personalizing the funeral service.

Doug Manning assists us to understand what happens when someone dies, to accept it, and to face the feelings of loss, separation, and even guilt that we experience in realistic yet healing way.

The author provides thoughtful advice for rebuilding a grief-shattered life while taking to heart the valuable lessons death and mourning impart to everyone.

A powerful exploration of grief and resilience that combines memoir, reportage, and lessons in how to heal Everyone deals with grief in their own way. Helen MacDonald found solace in training a wild goshawk. Cheryl Strayed found comfort in hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. For Carol Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist struggling with the sudden death of her seven-year-old son Christopher, the way to cross the river of sorrow was through work.In Crossing the River, Smith recounts how she faced down her crippling loss through reporting a series of profiles of people coping with their own intense challenges, whether a freak accident, a debilitating injury, or a terrifying diagnosis. Smith deftly mixes the stories of these individuals and their families with her own account of how they helped her heal. General John Shalikashvili, once the most powerful member of the American military, taught Carol how to face fear with discipline and endurance. Seth, a young boy with a rare and incurable illness, shed light on the totality of her son's experiences, and in turn helps readers see that the value of a life is not measured in days.This is a beautiful and profoundly moving book, an unforgettable journey through grief, and a valuable, illuminating read for anyone coping with loss.

We live in a society where people struggle to look death in the eye. Death has become the territory of professionals and we rarely see a dead body, unless it is someone very close to us. Death has become hidden, and so more traumatic. This book shows that, if we start talking openly about death, it can change the way we live. It is a collection of stories and images about death, dying and bereavement. People from all walks of life share their experiences and what they have learned from accompanying others. Heartbreaking, angry, questioning and contradictory - laugh-aloud funny, even - the stories illuminate, inspire, reassure and inform. They are accompanied by commentaries from professionals working in end-of-life planning, health, bereavement and funeral care.

A wonderfully quixotic, charming and surprisingly uplifting travelogue which sees Jack Cooke, author of the much-loved The Treeclimbers Guide, drive around the British Isles in a clapped-out forty-year old hearse in search of famous - and not so famous - tombs, graves and burial sites. Along the way, he launches a daredevil trespass into Highgate Cemetery at night, stumbles across the remains of the Welsh Druid who popularised cremation and has time to sit and ponder the imponderables at the graveside of the Lady of Hoy, an 18th century suicide victim whose body was kept in near condition by the bog in which she was buried. A truly unique, beautifully written and wonderfully imagined book.

A Columbia University physician comes across a popular medieval text on dying well written after the horror of the Black Plague and discovers ancient wisdom for rethinking death and gaining insight today on how we can learn the lost art of dying well in this wise, clear-eyed book that is as compelling and soulful as Being Mortal, When Breath Becomes Air, and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. As a specialist in both medical ethics and the treatment of older patients, Dr. L. S. Dugdale knows a great deal about the end of life. Far too many of us die poorly, she argues. Our culture has overly medicalized death: dying is often institutional and sterile, prolonged by unnecessary resuscitations and other intrusive interventions. We are not going gently into that good night-our reliance on modern medicine can actually prolong suffering and strip us of our dignity. Yet our lives do not have to end this way. Centuries ago, in the wake of the Black Plague, a text was published offering advice to help the living prepare for a good death. Written during the late Middle Ages, ars moriendi-The Art of Dying-made clear that to die well, one first had to live well and described what practices best help us prepare. When Dugdale discovered this Medieval book, it was a revelation. Inspired by its holistic approach to the final stage we must all one day face, she draws from this forgotten work, combining its wisdom with the knowledge she has gleaned from her long medical career. The Lost Art of Dying is a twenty-first century ars moriendi, filled with much-needed insight and thoughtful guidance that will change our perceptions. By recovering our sense of finitude, confronting our fears, accepting how our bodies age, developing meaningful rituals, and involving our communities in end-of-life care, we can discover what it means to both live and die well. And like the original ars moriendi, The Lost Art of Dying includes nine black-and-white drawings from artist Michael W. Dugger. Dr. Dugdale offers a hopeful perspective on death and dying as she shows us how to adapt the wisdom from the past to our lives today. The Lost Art of Dying is a vital, affecting book that reconsiders death, death culture, and how we can transform how we live each day, including our last.

If you've lost a spouse, child, family member, or friend, you've discovered that few people understand the deep hurt you feel.

Where do you turn for daily comfort and help? Where do you find the tools to move forward? Through a Season of Grief is the first 365-day devotional designed to support and uplift you in that first, most difficult year of bereavement.

These devotions offer biblical comfort and practical teaching that will enable you to take steps forward toward healing each and every day. You will better understand the grieving process and will receive needed encouragement along the way.

More than thirty respected Christian professionals–including Kay Arthur, Jack Hayford, and Luis Palau–share their insights on how to walk through the devastation of grief toward wholeness and hope. You will also hear from people like you who lost a loved one and found God's healing presence in the midst of despair.

This unique devotional is based on GriefShare, a national grief recovery support group program that has helped more than 100,000 families.

In Winter of the Heart, retreat leader, former psychotherapist, and bestselling author Paula D'Arcy shares her life's work, accompanying you through seasons of grief and the emotions that come with the loss of a loved one or after other major changes in life. Winter of the Heart is a companion for anyone early in grieving process-for the person experiencing shock, emotional pain, an inability to move, guilt, intense anger, and a range of other emotions that might be new to you. D'Arcy lost her young husband and toddler in a violent car accident more than four decades ago. She understands your grief and can also help you look to what's on the other side-hope, acceptance, recognition that what you are experiencing is both common and unique, and the essential counsel that you need not ever "get over it." Winter of the Heart is for those who mourn the death of a loved one, but it is also for counselors and pastoral ministers. You'll find D'Arcy's words relevant for other occasions when mourning can be painful, including the end of a marriage, job loss, and other major life changes.

*THE NUMBER 1 BESTSELLER* What are the things we live for? What matters most in life when your time is short? This brave, frank and heartbreaking book shows what it means to die before your time; how to take charge of your life and fill it with wonder, hope and joy even in the face of tragedy. Ambitious and talented, Kate Gross worked at Number 10 Downing Street for two British Prime Ministers whilst only in her twenties. At thirty, she was CEO of a charity working with fragile democracies in Africa. She had married 'the best looking man I've ever kissed' - and given birth to twin boys in 2008. The future was bright. But aged 34, Kate was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer. After a two-year battle with the disease, Kate died peacefully at home on Christmas morning, just ten minutes before her sons awoke to open their stockings. She began to write as a gift to herself, a reminder that she could create even as her body began to self-destruct. Written for those she loves,her book is not a conventional cancer memoir; nor is it filled with medical jargon or misery. Instead, it is Kate's powerful attempt to make sense of the woman who emerged in the strange, lucid final chunk of her life. Her book aspires to give hope and purpose to the lives of her readers even as her own life drew to its close. Kate should have been granted decades to say all that she says in these pages. Denied the chance to bore her children and grandchildren with stories when she became fat and old, she offers us all her thoughts on how to live; on the wonder to be found in the everyday; the importance of friendship and love; what it means to die before your time and how to fill your life with hope and joy even in the face of tragedy.

Silver Butterfly Wings is my story. It's a story of transformation, of the many paths and decisions I faced while going through the process of grief. My husband had died and I was utterly shattered; could not imagine a life without him. Then signs from the other side appeared, filling me with hope: flickering lights, hawks flying overhead, our song on the radio, a butterfly's silvery wings, a hot spot on his side of the bed. At first I was sceptical. How could my dearly departed be sending signs and messages from across the veil? Over time I learned to trust these signs, these gifts from Spirit. There was a reason I was still here. I was meant to go on, to live my life with passion. I was to figure out who I was becoming in this totally different world and trust that life was taking me where I was meant to be. In short, I was to transform - like a butterfly.

Caring for a terminally ill loved one can be the single biggest challenge of your life. Drawing from her experience sitting with over 500 people as they died and caring for her own terminally ill father, Dr. Lani Leary gently guides caregivers, family, and friends through the difficult transitions of illness, death, and bereavement.
"No One Has to Die Alone "offers the practical skills, vocabulary, and insights needed to truly address the needs of a dying loved one while caring for yourself through the process. Dr. Leary shows both patient and caregiver how to rise above feelings of fear and isolation to find peace and meaning in each person's unique end-of-life experience.
Whether used as a reference book to address a particular challenge or read from start to finish, this is a must-read for anyone facing death or the loss of a loved one. You'll learn:
- how to listen to and support a loved one's needs;
- what to expect as a loved one declines and the different grieving processes and tasks;
- the key to supporting a grieving child;
- what resources are available for patients and caregivers;
- the lessons of near-death experiences and the value of after-death communications.