Life Blood

I decided to call my cancer the little c rather than the Big C. I wasn't giving it that much power over my life! - Cathy Koning

Cathy has been feeling unwell for some time. Eventually her worst fears are confirmed with the shock diagnosis of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. Cathy has a deep-seated aversion to medical procedures but without immediate treatment she will not survive - not a great combination. Maybe this is not going to end well.

Cathy's moving, unflinchingly honest and often humorous recollections and reflections chart her experience from diagnosis to cure and beyond. Along the way, she is admitted to ICU and placed in an induced coma, her mother dies, she undergoes a lifesaving but risky stem-cell transplant and marries her partner of 37 years.

Cathy chronicles her cancer journey for readers seeking a better understanding of what it's like to be patient trying to survive against the odds. It's for family and friends supporting a loved one, medical practitioners and patients themselves.

Life gave her lemons but Cathy decided to ask for something else.

About the author

Cathy Koning likes to re-invent herself. She briefly worked as a secondary school teacher after graduating with an arts degree from La Trobe University. As a theatre production photographer she toured Europe with Nigel Triffitt's Momma's Little Horror Show and captured shows at the Last Laugh Theatre Restaurant in Melbourne. After a stint as a cinema publicist she founded a successful gardening business and then ran a Sustainable Communities Program for two rural shires.

Everything changed in 2012 with a leukaemia diagnosis. During her long recovery Cathy turned her hand to writing and Dainty Diva, the biography of Dorothy Rudder, a Sydney soprano and vaudeville artist was the outcome. Life Blood, the story of her cancer journey, gave her the chance to reflect on what it meant to be confronted by a frightening diagnosis and the comfort she found in family, friends and access to an excellent public health system. She is currently researching her next book about a notorious American con-man.

Foreword by Dr Russell Harris bestselling author of The Happiness Trap