Book review by ROSEY WHITTLE, Macmillan Breast CNS.
Breast cancer: Answers at your fingertips
By Emma Pennery, Val Speechley and Maxine Rosenfield
Class Publishing. ISBN: 9781859591987
This is an excellent reference book for anyone who has questions about breast cancer - with answers to over 350 real questions. As breast care nurses, we will have heard many if not most of them from people with breast cancer and their families or from those who are worried about breast cancer.
This is not a book to be read from cover to cover - although it can be done - but instead it's one to dip into when looking for answers. It is also very useful as a reference for health professionals, including breast care nurses.
It has been written in a very readable manner and does not try to give individual advice - where necessary, the authors advise patients to ask the breast care nurse or medical staff involved with their care.
It is divided into sections:
- What is breast cancer?
- Symptoms, screening and investigations
- Treatment and care
- Complementary therapies
- Immediately after treatment
- Life with and after breast cancer
- The future.
The authors have asked for the publisher to be informed of any important questions that they may have omitted which, we hope, means that they plan to update this book. However, Diana Moran (TV's "Green Goddess") writes in a foreword that many of the questions posed are the same ones she asked 21 years ago when she was diagnosed so it is unlikely that this will quickly go out of date.
The book costs £14.99 including P&P from www.class.co.uk or you can send a cheque for the same amount to Priority Service, Class Publishing, FREEPOST, London W6 7BR. Quote code BC02 when placing an order.