The Cancer Ladies' Running Club

This is a tough read emotionally but appears to me to be an honest account of the writers struggle with breast cancer. I found the details from first hospital visit to final therapy session very interesting and my knowledge of the whole situation is now much greater. Add in the problems Keira has with her family business and you have a good read. Will recommend.

An honest and inspiring read about the power of friendship and hope in the face of adversity. I really enjoyed this book. Recommended.

Despite the serious subject matter this book is an absolute
Drawing from her own experiences of breast cancer the author tells you how it really is.
After receiving her diagnosis, the main chatter Keira joins the ladies cancer running club which is so much more than just running. It brings the support and help of new found friends all going through the same thing.
This book will stay with me for a long time.

If I had to find one word to sum up this book, I think it would be "important". It manages to portray the trauma of cancer treatment and all the emotions, reactions and logistics that are involved, but in a very accessible way. It is a great story, easy to read yet very informative. Everyone should read this book.

I feel guilty not rating this novel more highly. In many ways, it is a really important book: it’s about female friendship, triumphing through adversity, and, most importantly, about both the incredible difficulties and the astonishing strength to be found in the battle with cancer. The story is undeniably important, but, in my opinion, the writing and the characterisation didn’t hold up to the significance of the subject matter.

The story is based on Lloyd’s own experiences with breast cancer and her personal knowledge of the subject is evident throughout the novel. From the ins and outs of the treatment Keira faces to her interactions with friends and family, the story feels both realistic and heart-breaking. As I read, I couldn’t help but think of friends and family who are struggling with breast cancer or who have in the past, and this book gave me a better understanding of what they’re going through. For that reason alone, this book is quite a valuable read, as cancer is such a difficult thing to understand for those of us who haven’t directly experienced it.

That said, as valuable and touching as this book is, I often just found the writing and the characterisation to be frustrating. Throughout the story, Keira finds herself at odds with pretty much everyone in her life: her husband, her business partner, her mother, her mother-in-law, her daughter’s friend’s mother… It’s these conflicts that drive the novel’s plot, yet nearly all these relationships could be fixed by people simply talking. Similarly, nearly all the women in the Cancer Ladies’ Running Club have broken relationships in their past, largely bc they never told people about their cancer diagnosis. In each of these cases, when the women finally tell their friends/family/partner about the issues (or when Keira rather oversteps and tells them herself) the relationship is fixed without effort. While the novel attempts to portray how cancer complicates interpersonal relationships, it only manages to oversimplify the situation, with characters who move from horrible behaviour to complete forgiveness in a single scene.

Overall, this novel is certainly a valuable look at what it’s like to go through cancer treatment, and it is a joyful and life-affirming read, without sugar-coating the incredibly difficult aspects of cancer. I personally was frustrated by the two-dimensional characterisation and the way that everyone (other than the ladies in the club) was just pretty horrible to Keira for no reason, and I felt that the relationships in the novel were overly simplistic. Still, despite my frustrations, I think this was a helpful read for me, and I’d recommend to anyone looking to understand the journey through cancer.

Goodreads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4070504843

Keira runs a successful business as well as juggling a hectic home life complete with a husband and three children. In short she is a busy lady. And then life drops a bombshell when she is diagnosed with breast cancer. She needs a mastectomy followed by chemotherapy and then radiotherapy. Initially she is reluctant to tell anybody and when she does, she realises that her problems are only just beginning – most people only seem capable of seeing her as a cancer patient, not as the Keira that they used to know. Nonetheless she is determined to stay positive throughout. When her life starts falling apart around her and the cancer treatment is far harder to deal with than she anticipated, a chance encounter with Tamsin results in the start of the Cancer Ladies’ Running Club. This proves to be a crucial support network for all four of the founding members as they form close friendships which keep them going through the bad times – and believe me, there are plenty of those.

What a fabulous book. On one level it is a fast-paced easy-read novel with a great storyline. However, it is far from being a trite book because on another level it reads like a blow-by-blow memoir of a cancer patient. Which in effect is exactly what it is. It is inspired by the author’s own experience of breast cancer and is heartfelt, candid, honest and perceptive. Thankfully I do not have first-hand knowledge of what it is like to either have cancer or of being a family member or close friend of somebody who does. Despite my complete lack of experience in this area, many of the emotions expressed by the characters in this book rang true and came across as being totally authentic. They are expressed beautifully and with a dignity which the people themselves are probably far from feeling. Above all, this book is informative. It taught me a lot about the brutality of the treatment and the support that is needed from friends in order to keep going and carry on.
I will be keeping this book in my collection to refer back to – just in case. I cannot think of a better way to make a cancer patient feel that they are not going through it alone and, despite the fact that everyone copes differently and reacts differently (physically, mentally and emotionally) I would think that anyone would be able to relate to some aspect of Kiera’s experience and glean some degree of comfort and hope from it.

I cannot think of anything I would change about this book.

Thoroughly recommended for almost anyone. In fact I would go a step further and say that it is a book which should be read by a very wide audience.

In an era of negativity, was nice to find something more positive to read about the empowering of women and strength of enduring friendships through adversity. Would recommend!