World Book Day: West Midlands book club set up by Teenage Cancer Trust Youth Support Worker inspires character in novel

A virtual book club set up by Teenage Cancer Trust Youth Support Coordinator Cathy Cook, has helped to develop a character in a new novel.

The West Midlands Teenage and Young Adult Book Club was set up in 2020 by Cathy to help young people with cancer escape the daily worries of life and to feel less isolated.

The club has been joined by four different authors including Cynthia Murphy. Cynthia discussed her books which were an instant hit with the group (Last One to Die, Win Lose Kill Die, The Midnight Game and Signed Sealed Dead). 

 Cynthia, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016, asked the group to help her develop a character who has cancer in her new book called Signed Sealed Dead. The book is about true-crime obsessed Paige and her family, who move across the Atlantic to her father’s eerie hometown, and it’s not long before she uncovers the town’s dark history - a string of unsolved murders and disappearances in the 90s.

 The author said: “I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016 and went through nine months of treatment. It has always been something I’m comfortable talking about in a kind of clinically detached way – I think it’s really important to raise awareness – but this was the first time I felt safe enough to approach the emotional aspects of dealing with things like the anxiety around scans and not knowing what will happen in the future.

 “Talking to the members of the book club helped massively with this, as I could chat with them about their experiences too. So many people’s treatment experiences are different, but our emotions were all the same and I wanted to get that down on the page, in case it ever helped a reader.”

Cynthia has mentioned the West Midlands Teenage and Young Adult Book Club in her new book in the acknowledgements page and explains that one of the characters has leukaemia. She said a lot of the character’s thoughts and feeling are ones that Cynthia had herself during her treatment and some feelings are still there. 

In the book, Cynthia (pictured left) writes in the dedication page: “For everyone who endures cancer treatment. For everyone who has to watch.”

 The West Midlands Teenage and Young Adult Book Club is formed of teenagers and young adults who are either: newly diagnosed with cancer, going through treatment, or who have finished their cancer treatment.

 Cathy, who works across University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, and The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, supporting teenagers and young adults with cancer in the West Midlands, said: “The book club is something I had thought about as an activity for ages, as I love reading. But bringing people together face to face regularly would not have been logistically possible during Covid, but it meant that virtual working was possible.

 “Having a virtual book club means that someone can join us whether they are at home, in hospital, at university, in bed, having dinner, or even out of the country.”

 At first, the book club had three members and it has now grown to six core members, with many other people joining when they can.

 The group meets every two weeks and reads around four books per year. 

 Cathy said: “We first meet after reading two chapters to discuss thoughts on the book so far, and then agree how long people would like to take reading to agree a date to meet once we have all read the book.

 “We always encourage people to join us even if they haven’t managed to finish reading the book (as long as they know there will be spoilers!), or stopped reading as they didn’t like it.”

 People enjoy the book club so much that one of the long-term members has been known to join while traveling, logging in from Italy and Scotland from their campervan - wifi and signal permitting.

 Cathy has branched out the book club and has welcomed other Teenage Cancer Trust Youth Support Co-ordinators and young people from Leeds, Edinburgh and Newcastle. 

 The group’s favourite type of books are thrillers and murders.

 Cathy (pictured) said: “At the start, we would meet every two weeks, as people were shielding at home or in hospital, so it was a great distraction from what was going on in their lives.    

Sophie, a young person who is a member of the book club and who has been supported by Teenage Cancer Trust, said: “I love book club because I find that listening to everyone’s interpretations of the book is really interesting.

 “It’s a really relaxed space where everyone can share their opinions and connect with each other through the books we read. It’s a really great opportunity to get to know new people and read books I wouldn’t have read if it wasn’t for book club.”

 Cathy added: “Reading really is escapism, and it is something that you can do any time of day and wherever you are. Some people enjoy the fact that it gets them off their phones and social media, and a book will never judge you! 

Cathy said: “Our book club brings like-minded people together - regardless of how you felt about a book, whether you are newly diagnosed, back in education/work following treatment, or wherever you are in the UK. In the words of famous author Stephen King ‘books are a uniquely portable magic’.”