WINNER OF THE BIG RED READ PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION IN 2013.

Cathryn Kemp was a successful travel journalist who was struck down by a life-threatening illness, pancreatitis. After four years of operations and mis-diagnoses she left hospital with a repeat prescription for fentanyl, a painkiller 100 times stronger than heroinWithin two years she was taking more than ten times the NHS maximum, all on prescription. Her family struggled to understand; her boyfriend left her, she hit rock bottom. Discovering she had only six months to live if she didn''t give up the drugs she sold everything she owned and checked into rehab.

In the addiction treatment centre she was told that she was unlikely to recover from ''the highest level of opiate-abuse in the clinic''s history''. To everyone''s amazement, she proved them wrong.

This is an extraordinarily poignant, vivid and honest memoir. Based on the twenty-four diaries that the author kept during this period, we travel with Cathryn through her hospital agony, descend with her into the hell of addiction and cheer her as she pulls herself out and upwardsIt is a love story, a horror story, a survival story, and one that shows only too clearly the very real dangers of the over-prescription of painkillers and tranquillisers.

There is also a resource section for sufferers and their loved ones.

Format Häftad Omfång 320 sidor Språk Engelska Förlag Little, Brown Book Group Utgivningsdatum 2012-09-06 ISBN 9780749958060