The Naked Truth About Breast Cancer

This is not an ordinary book.

It's the raw, unedited, and unfiltered diary and photos of a woman going through, not just breast cancer, but also living alone in Melbourne's lockdown, during the covid pandemic while dealing with breast cancer. Nothing is off-limits. From the moment of being was told 'you have breast cancer', author Jane Marshall captured everything.

This book shows the emotional, and spiritual rollercoaster that is this disease. Breast cancer is seen as a 'good' cancer, which means that survival rates are high relative to other cancers. You're not likely to die. But that only tells half the story - breast cancer is absolutely brutal, arduous, and very lonely. For many nothing is ever the same again and much goes unspoken; the trauma, the perceived shame, being told not to complain and certainly not death.

This then, is The Naked Truth About Breast Cancer. It's the book you need when you get your diagnosis, so you know what to expect. It's all the things that no-one ever talks about, and that your surgeon, doctor, oncologist don't tell you.

In exposing her own story in such a raw and personal way, Jane shows the reader that yes, it's hard, but you're not failing and each woman should feel empowered to do it her own way, and to feel that every day she gets up and puts one foot in front of the other is her victory.

This book takes a head on approach to the taboos, adversity and struggles of going through breast cancer at a time when the rest of the world was focused on 'the' pandemic of Covid, and it confronts these issues in a deeply mystical - not spiritual or religious way but in a way that when you feel you can't go on, a divine grace presents itself and becomes a source of superhuman courage.

Whilst avoiding advice, the book does provide a framework for how to approach breast cancer as a rite of passage. When you feel utterly lost, it's a huge comfort to know that there is in fact a well-trodden path, that others have been here before you, and if we are willing, this thing we don't want and didn't ask for, can be an act of metamorphosis.