Heartsongs in the Key of C: Women Writing About Breast Cancer

In 2003 women who had been affected by a diagnosis of breast cancer met in workshops around Victoria to write about their experiences. They had only one thing in common - they lived in rural Victoria. Almost all had been diagnosed with cancer and they included a handful who had heard those words spoken to someone they loved: a mother, daughter, friend or colleague. This collection of their writing records the joys and sorrows, the struggles. Losses and achievements of ordinary women confronting an extraordinary challenge. It covers that gripping time around diagnosis, the process of coming to terms with that news, of learning and adjusting, incorporating and moving on for 48 writers. The greatest number of pieces are about living with cancer.