Jump: How Chronic Illness Made Me Well

by Callie Hunter, Chantel Hamilton (editor), Aaron Johnson (illustrator)

Jump is a memoir exploring the loss of identity experienced when diagnosed with a chronic illness. Beyond this, it is a journey into the author's realization, after relentless attempts at healing her bladder disease, that true healing would only come from learning how to be alive in every sick or not.

Callie was a mom of three, who woke up at the age of 32 to a pain in her bladder which wouldn't leave for years. As a licensed psychologist, she was surprised at the impact a chronic illness would have on her mental health and emotional wellbeing. She was also unprepared for how little mental health support was available to those with chronic illness.

As she started to heal, she used her background in research to uncover the truth of what happens to one's identity when they are faced with an illness they must deal with...forever.

Jump takes the reader through diagnosis, grief, and ultimately teaches the lesson many learn when they are faced with life's most difficult that waking up to the beauty of living in the moment and finding the joy in the process of self discovery, far surpasses the comfortability of counting on a pain free tomorrow.

107 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 19, 2024

About the author

Callie Hunter is a 22 year-old aspiring author, who has taken inspiration from playwright Sarah Kane, YA author Ellen Hopkins, and Korean film director Kim Ki-Duk. She has been writing with intention to be published from the age of 16. With a degree in Film Studies from the University of Surrey, England, her first area of writing is screenwriting, she has expanded to convert her screenplays into novel form.

She is currently studying Adult Nursing at LSBU, in Havering, England. To date, she has two complete novels ready for editing (In Between Dreams, Bruised, and a work-in-progress called Tiptoe). She’s an avid cat lover, and everything animal related, as is clear from the starring roles the animals in her work perform!

Reviews

[BS Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jump is one of the most authentic accounts of living with chronic illness I’ve ever read. As someone who has spent years as a case manager, and many more battling my own demons, I was struck by how honestly Hunter captures the impact on relationships, daily life, and self-identity. The writing made me laugh one moment and cry the next, blending humor and heartbreak in a way that feels profoundly human. For the love of coffee, wine, sugo, and self…give this one a read.

[Yvonne Busker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Searched my soul

Wow! A must read. Live in the HERE. What's your fruit? What will you stomp! Eye awakening! Hope is available.