Helen Rollason

Advantages: -
Disadvantages: -

...I used to watch Helen Rollason present the sport bit on the news, and as a journalist on many great events. You never think these people are untouchable, it’s a shock when you hear they have cancer and even a greater shock when you die. You don’t expect it, you don’t know them but you are used to them. And one day they die, you feel sad for a person you don’t even know. I did and that’s why I bought this book. It’s a moving story of the TV presenter who courageously fought a losing battle against cancer. With cancer death is inevitable but that doesn’t mean you have to accept it, you can either fight and live every minute of your life or dwell in self-pity. She died fighting and gave us tremendous hope. In the autobiography, she reveals her pain, her despair and her courage to defy... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: brave woman
Disadvantages: lost her fight

...This was a great book which I recently purchased. All I could remember her was the sports presenter who was trying to fight cancer…….and who unfortunately lost her battle and died. The book was sad, it was a brave battle, but cancer is I am sad to say a fatal illness. But, she didn’t lie down, she defied doctors and fought her illness with great will and determination. It was sad when she died one of your regular faces on the news dying…….. This is an excellent insight into the last years of Helen’s life, she was so brave for her daughter, and with the support of her colleagues, looked like she was winning the battle, only to lose it right at the end. For two years she continued to work after she was diagnosed with cancer. The book gives great insight to her life, her illness and her character... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Sad but inspiring memoir
Disadvantages: None

...A few years ago, I might not have given a book like this a second glance. My interest in sport is not that great, and as for the health aspects, I fear I might have passed by on the other side. However, having since made friends with a woman about my age who had lost her mother to breast cancer, and with two much younger women who are both in remission from similar life-threatening illnesses, when this appeared I had to read it. Helen's story is surely too fresh within living memory to need to recount. A pioneer woman sports presenter in what had previously been a male-dominated profession, ironically she achieved far greater fame when diagnosed with advanced colon and liver cancer at the age of 41. Given three months to live, she fought it for two years. This book is classed as autobiography, although it's not a conventionally... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful