Glittering a Turd: How surviving the unsurvivable taught me to live: The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller

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My third and final thank you to Kris is just for existing. Although a complete stranger I am so proud of you and everything you have done and have yet to do. I hope the next time I’m in Cornwall I can visit Beyoncé and meet you there. Lots of this book has sat with me and will sit with me the rest of my life, I have already shared quotes with all of my friends and I’ll continue to buy copies and gift them as it’s truly something everyone should read. I hope you continue to live and be happy for many years to come and when the time comes, as it will for us all I hope you know that your presence on this earth will be forever - in the work you’ve done and the minds of people like me and everyone else who has followed your journey and passed it on. I’ve been in love with Kris Hallenga for a few years now after first hearing her on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place. “I believe in hope, I believe in happiness, I believe in cups of tea” has circled my head since my first listen and now since reading this book I have plenty more of her quotes to guide me.

Rage at the egotistical, dismissive, offhand, "I know better because I'm a professional type" doctors who won't f**king listen to their patients who know their own bodies best!!!! This book just brings home how disparaging some doctors, particularly GP's can be, towards women with clear symptoms of cancer. For some reason there seems to be a "can't be arsed" attitude to even refer people for scans, biopsies, mammograms, ultrasound scans, MRI's. Everything is dismissed as "your hormones, your age, your lifestyle", with a definite leaning towards the "watch and wait" scenario. It's not good enough, nor has it ever been. This book time hops to give you an insight into the life growing up, the life before diagnosis and the life during the diagnosis. It emotionally connects you more the further you read into every chapter. The chapter titles made me smile. I’m glad the chapters were not just labelled a number. If you were sitting in a room chatting to Kris I cannot imagine the conversation to be any more intimate and engaging than the writing in this book. Kris talks about her childhood, her family, her relationships, the things she loves and hates, how she set up Coppafeel because she believed in cancer prevention and early diagnosis. Starting in a little tent at a festival, winging it, the charity has become a huge force in making changes in health education, a dialogue about the C word and has literally saved the lives of many women who have gone to their GPs armed with Kris’ story. And yes Kris writes about her cancer. Diagnosed at 23 - and isn’t that the ‘turd’ of the title - after a series of terrible missed opportunities/ mis-diagnoses which meant that her eventual diagnosis had a ‘terminal’ label.New tiny brain lesion followed by stereotactic radiotherapy. Two new liver lesions. Oophorectomy to ensure little to no oestrogen in my body. Stopped letrozole, switched to exemestane and affinitor. Later switched from Affinitor to Palbociclib targeted treatment. Monthly denusomab injections. Her outlook on cancer and living with cancer is so life affirming. I’ve mentioned it before but I’ll mention it again for the sake of this review; I lost my father in 2017, 9 months after a terminal diagnosis of cancer and the whole time was a horrible, difficult, turd of a time, and it would have been very easy to crumble. As I’m sure Kris did at times, but she also learnt how to live. Yes she was given a terminal diagnosis, but cancer diagnoses are no longer always the death sentence they once were. She was given 2-3 years life expectancy and here she is, over ten years later. In the very same setting where I and my friend work, another colleague has a daughter who was told by a MALE GP that her bleeding between periods was likely due to rough sex with her boyfriend!! After pushing to get a cervical smear, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and subsequently treated!!

In this episode, Laura opens up to Kris about the highs and lows she experienced while living out her ‘blue crush dream’, including a fierce battle with bulimia that consumed her at the height of her years in competitive sport. She speaks candidly about some of her darkest moments, her fear of failure and pinpoints the exact moment she realised that she needed help. If you want to share the story of how you've glittered your turd, send a voice note or WhatsApp to the Turd Hotline >>> +44 (0)776 923 7544You can buy Nastaha’s first fiction book ‘Toxic’ here - https://uk.bookshop.org/books/toxic-9781912979899/9781912979899 What an inspiring story of a 23 year olds journey with what started as breast cancer during a pandemic. I loved how witty it was and how the authors spirits were so high. I’ve read a few memoirs and this was so powerful. The beaming and infectious Gaby Roslin has been a much loved stable on our TVs and Radios for over 30 years whether it was hosting the Big Breakfast, Children In Need or on various radio shows or more recently on her own podcast. Hallenga founded Coppafeel!, which educates young people about the signs and symptoms of cancer, after she was diagnosed with Stage 4, secondary, incurable breast cancer aged 23. She was told she stood a one in10 chance of surviving beyond five years and Unbound said the launch marks 11 years since her diagnosis.