I wrote my picture book If You Were Here a few months after losing my mum, Karina Stell. Mum passed away from lymphoma in 2018 after a long battle, and the grief of losing my best friend, my anchor, but even more importantly, the loss for my children, was where If You Were Here was born from.

Mum was also a writer and spent the final years of her life completing her own story - her incredible and deeply moving memoir, Life Interrupted. She wanted to not only leave a legacy behind for those who needed to feel seen and supported, but to raise money for research into new treatments so that others might have the chance that she didn't have.

All funds raised from sales of Life Interrupted go to Blood Cancer Research. If you purchase the Life Interrupted + If You Were Here book bundle, you will receive 10% off and a total of $30 will be donated to Blood Cancer Research (per bundle purchased). For more information on Karina's chosen blood cancer foundations, or to purchase her book separately visit www.lifeinterruptedmemoir.com.au

Life Interrupted - A Memoir by Karina Stell

'‘I’ve decided to write this book, as painful as it is for me, because I know there are others, like me, who have faced the unimaginable, and wondered how to begin living their lives again... When I hear of any cancer story now, I don’t think of anatomy. I think about what it must have been like the day their life changed. The fear, the denial, the lack of hope that would come and go. I always want to internally say hello to them. To say via my own wounded heart to theirs, ‘I know’.’

Karina Stell’s moving memoir details the journey from her first to her fourth and final cancer diagnosis through to her ultimate palliation. She wrote this book for everyone who would find themselves on a similar journey, for their loved ones, and for those who work in the haematology/oncology field who must never forget the importance of compassion and humanity in their care.

Karina passed away on 27th September 2018. Her story is her legacy.

Elisabeth Sophia & Karina Stell

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