Pearls: A Memoir On Childhood Brain Cancer and Hope

by Maggie Bushway, Rob Bushway, Zoe Marchant (illustrator)

The year is 2003. 7-year-old brain cancer patient Maggie Bushway decides she wants to write a book chronicling her experience. Meanwhile, 33-year-old Rob Bushway decides to start blogging updates on his little girl’s battle with cancer. The year is 2023. 28-year-old Maggie finds a box of her dad’s printed out blog posts, as well as the excerpts of that book she never finished. The pieces fit together, and 20 years of perspective on pain, chronic illness, family, and hope filled it in.

Maggie, Little Maggie, her dad Rob, tell the story of a journey that nobody wants to go on. The first part of the book focuses on her cancer diagnosis and treatment. The second part explores the long-term consequences of cancer treatment. And the third part focuses on living with chronic conditions as an adult and how her past shaped who she is today.

200 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 21, 2024

Reviews

[Tricia Benton-Woodroof · Rating 5 out of 5]

inspiring!

This book is not just a memoire of someone who has gone through childhood cancer, but the story of someone who perseveres daily through her own suffering, doubts and questions and yet, still can praise God. It is inspiring for anyone who is in the middle of their own story of suffering, or the caregiver of someone who is suffering. This is definitely worth the read!