A Cavan librarian who was diagnosed with cancer says she found her solace in literature.
Josephine Brady Lennon was diagnosed with incurable blood cancer just before her 50th birthday The treatment for this form of cancer involves the patient getting progressivly sicker before starting any treatment programme. Josephine says during this time, she found comfort in poetry and prose, and took heavy inspiration from an interview between Marian Finucane and Nuala O Faolain. She has now released a new book titled "The Breath of Consolation:Finding Solace in Cancer Literature".
Speaking on the Joe Finnegan show, the Cavan librarian says the book is a culmination of 10 years of using literature as comfort in times of need.
"The moment I got time, I started searching for a poem or a piece of prose that might offer some small bit of solace to Nuala O Faolain. But, she died 19 days later. The memory of that came back to me on the day of my diagnosis and I said I have to find some profound writing myself so that I can deal with the whole pyschological meltdown that was going on underneath what looked stoic and in control and basically happy to get on with life and wait for treatment".
