Thursday 13 May 2021

Book Review - The Cancer Ladies' Running Club by Josie Lloyd

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Amazon UK

Title: The Cancer Ladies' Running Club
Author: Josie Lloyd
Format reviewed: Ebook
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: 13th May 2021
Publication Date: HQ
Rating: 5 Stars

Sometimes we need our friends to help us find our feet…

When Keira receives her breast cancer diagnosis she doesn’t want to have to tell her children or her husband Tom, and she doesn’t want to step back from work. She doesn’t want to sit in a hospital and stare mortality in the face, nor be part of a group of fellow cancer patients. Cancer is not her club.

But, as she is forced to accept everything must change and her health becomes something she can’t rely on, Keira finds herself embracing running. Hot, sweaty running in the company of a group of brilliant, funny women each going through treatment.

Because the C-word is not going to define Keira’s identity. And with the Cancer Ladies’ Running Club cheering her on, she is going to reclaim her life. One step at a time.

Moving and uplifting, this is a novel about love, family and the power of finding your tribe.

Uplifting and emotional - wonderful writing 

This is very clearly a personal novel for the author, and she draws on her own experience of Cancer, in order to produce such a brilliant book. 

I would say try not to read the early parts of this book while eating, if you are squeamish.  Some of the in depth descriptions of just how the surgery will happen, unfortunately appeared while I was eating and instantly made me lose my appetite.   

But besides the technical, in depth hospital details of a woman undergoing breast cancer treatment, there is the rest of her life as it continues, and Keira's determination that cancer won't be her defining characteristic. 

And that is where this book comes into it's own, we get to meet a group of strong determined women, who have decided to run their way through cancer, and they form strong friendships as a result of it.  Tasmin, Amma, Sian and Keira are all inspirational in their own ways. 

Yet not everyone was as a supported of Keira as they perhaps should be, so she is struggling with work issues, which as the reader were obvious a mile off, but it took her a while to realise it wasn't her just dropping the ball. There is her family, who all have different reactions to the diagnosis, as to the mums in the playground, and her best friends, pre-cancer. 

It's the bonds of female friendship that really make this book, and I feel it could potentially give anyone going through breast cancer treatment some hope too.  This is not a depressing book, yes there were moments I was on the verge of tears, but that is because the writing is so good, that I really cared for the characters and what they are going through. 

Truly fabulous book that I highly recommend. 

Thank you to HQ and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily, 

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