Catherine Jessop

Every year in the UK, over 16 million people are admitted to hospital. Many of them experience, as I did, a surreal feeling of "this can't be happening to me - help!" My first book, Pulling Through aims to provide that help. My husband Alan was in hospital for 11 months following a diagnosis of encephalitis which left him with a permanent brain injury, so I then became his carer, which was also a steep learning curve. I discovered that there are many excellent books out there about specific diseases, but none which deal with the general experience of hospitals, illness and caring from a patient and family's perspective. So, I wrote one!