What an amazing and heart wrenching story this is, yet i,along with most other people, knew nothing about the story of Anthony Nolan except for the fact that he was born with a disease that effected his bone marrow, had a mother who set up the Anthony Nolan Trust in the Seventies, and ....well that was all really.
This morning i awoke at 4:37 am and had a mad compulsion to pick up this book, which i had recently won on an Ebay auction for 1 pence!, and read it...and read it...etc.At 10am i finished it, and the emotion that it stirred in my very soul was astonishing, fueled even more so by the fact that i recently learned of how Shirley left this world, also with a tragic twist.
It is a story that is both powerful and moving, has moments of hope tainted with despair, and other times the sheer shock and awe in which the reader realises just what an incredibly resourceful, single minded woman Shirley was.....and all for the love of her only son Anthony.
So please, if you have access to a library, see if they have a copy of this relatively unknown (and out of print)publication,or maybe you will find a rare copy on Ebay, because if you enjoy reading a story that, to be quite honest, would make a factual Hollywood blockbuster, you will not be disappointed, and if you are like me, you will thank god that your lives are (in comparison) so blessed with relative mediocrity.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Anthony (October 21st 1979), and 7 years since Shirley's.
If you only ever had the chance to read one more book in your lifetime..this is it.
2 comments:
When are they going to bring a FILM out.... about her life..... she was incredible
Hi Paula. As we speak a lady named Liz Swan is producing a script for a possible film/play about Shirley.
Her main obstacle in getting the project to fruition is the need for backers and sponsors.So if you are aware of anyone who may be interested in helping fund this well overdue project please let us know! :-). Best wishes.Andy.
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