‘Staying Alive: A Book Of Hope’

 ‘Staying Alive: A Book Of Hope’ is a poetry book which was created by Seren Haf, Rachel Woods, Jill Davies and Lorraine Burroughs. This book has been created by women living with a secondary cancer diagnosis and shares their experiences through creative writing to offer strength and wisdom to anyone else affected by secondary cancer. Some of the funds raised from the book will be donated to Make 2nds Count. 

We caught up with one of the authors Rachel Woods to find out more about the creation of the book.

‘Hi, I’m Rachel Woods, 54 years old and have been living with Secondary Breast Cancer, HER2+, for nearly five years. I am treated at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff and have a lot of support from my local hospice St Davids.

Two years ago I answered an advert at St David’s to join a writing group that was held on zoom. Seren Haf is a dramatherapist living with SBC, she led our group. Each month we’d look at a poem, song, picture and these prompted our writings. I thoroughly enjoyed our meetings and was amazed by the profound writing our group created. We were a group of five, with one thing in common: secondary cancer. Seren collated our writings and we printed our book,

 ‘Staying Alive: A Book Of Hope’ Poetry by women living with advanced cancer.

Our book was launched Spring 2023 and I have been blown away by its success. Our book raises money for three charities, Velindre Cancer Centre, St David's Hospice and Make 2nds Count. We all have treatment through Velindre and use our hospice support services. We are hoping the book will raise awareness of living with secondary cancer and as three of us have SBC we wanted to fund a charity that directly supports advanced breast cancer and ongoing research. We are fundraising for Make2ndsCount as we felt it not only offers a range of support services for those of us living with this disease, but runs the innovative patient trials scheme, which is a crucial service for any of us looking at treatment options.

This project has not only given me the opportunity to become an author,[ tick that off the many things I want to achieve in my life,] but, has enabled me to express deeply painful emotions surrounding my prognosis, clarifying the confusion and bewilderment I initially felt. I have made wonderful friendships who continue to offer me love and support. We dedicated our Book to Charlene who unfortunately died whilst we were still writing. Lorraine died eight weeks after we published, my greatest memory is of us all at the Book Launch reading our poems to over sixty people. Lorraine and I held hands under the table, to try and help my nerves and shaking body.

It has been an honour to create our Book with my wonderful friends, Seren, Jill, Lorraine and Charlene. 

If you’d like to support our project by buying a book please email Jill on Jillied71@hotmail.co.uk

We would like to thank everyone involved for creating this book and for supporting Make 2nds Count.