When writer, editor and teacher of creative writing Jackie Buxton was diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of 2013, she did what she always does when life presents her with a ‘bit of a challenge’- she wrote it down…

Her thoughts soon found their way into her blog. When she posted about losing her hair, that chemo could be fun or about the foods to try when it makes everything taste of mud stirred with bicarbonate of soda, people wrote to say that her blog had helped. It had calmed their nerves and made them smile.

A year after diagnosis, realising she had so much more to say Jackie joined forces with Urbane Publications to produce Tea & Chemo: Fighting Cancer, Living Life. The result is a unique mix of her original blog posts and further thoughts and experiences of everything from mouth ulcers to premature menopause, chemo cough to twitchy legs, together with a light-hearted look at what to say and what not to say when someone tells you they have cancer.

Jackie joins June, Tina and Sue on this Sunday’s show to share some of the highs and lows of the past three years. She’s also be talking to the Girls Around Town about the inspiration behind her new novel Glass Houses, the story of two women, their stupid mistakes and the devastation they cause, as well as the silver linings.

Tune in or listen online between 10am and 12 noon to hear Jackie describe how she set out to give hope to everyone who has to cope with this devastating illness by making Tea & Chemo  ‘the book I wanted to read when I was diagnosed – the truth coated with positivity and optimism’.