Yet Here I Am : One Woman's Story of Life After Death

Deborah Binner believed the stage was set for a contented midlife after a rocky childhood. A happy marriage, good job, lovely home and three daughters moving relatively peacefully towards adolescence and beyond. What more could she ask for? Then in 2013 her world came crashing down when an 'innocuous' pain in her 15 year-old daughter's leg turned into a cancer diagnosis. And despite an agonising three-year battle with bone cancer, Chloe died aged just 18 and two weeks. Flung into a tsunami of grief, the small family tried to navigate a path to survival. But fate intervened again. Just 18 months after Chloe's death, Deborah's beloved husband Simon was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. As a man who was adamant that "the endgame of motor neurone disease is not for me", he ended his life in a Swiss suicide clinic within months of diagnosis. Their family's story was the subject of a BAFTA-nominated BBC documentary, How to Die: Simon's Choice. In Yet Here I Am, Deborah looks back at a life ripped apart by so much loss out of the natural order of things. Brutally frank, searingly honest and heartbreakingly poignant, she charts her remarkable journey from suicidal grief to some kind of survival and eventually, to a new form of happiness. This is a book about the resilience of the human spirit, hope in the face of agonising despair and the power of love. Deborah Binner's world was shattered when her 15 year-old daughter Chloe was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare bone cancer. Despite aggressive treatment, Chloe died three years later, two weeks after her 18th birthday. Still reeling from grief, Deborah was plunged deeper into despair when just 18 months later, her beloved husband Simon learned he had motor neurone disease. What's more, Simon knew from the outset he had no intention of allowing the disease to play out and opted instead for an assisted death. Despite her personal feelings, Deborah had no choice but to accompany him to a Swiss suicide clinic to say their goodbyes. The last six months of Simon's life was filmed for a BBC documentary - How to Die: Simon's Choice which was nominated for a BAFTA. In Yet Here I Am, Deborah describes with painful honesty, how she emerged from crushing sadness and pain to forge a new life for herself and even - eventually - find a new form of happiness. This is a remarkable story of human strength, resilience and hope. Deborah Binner suffered the heartbreak of losing a child to cancer and within two years, her beloved husband to assisted suicide after a MND diagnosis. In Yet Here I Am, she describes how she managed to pick herself up from the depths of despair and forge a new life for herself, never giving up hope of once more finding something to live for.