Extreme Parenting: Parenting Your Child with a Chronic Illness

by Sharon Dempsey

'[A] valuable addition to the literature on chronic paediatric illness... The book provides an in depth understanding of the path through chronic illness, illustrating the obvious effects on the child, but also the parents, siblings and the family as a whole across the spectrum from the psychological and social to the physical... There is much to be learnt from this book and it deserves careful reading.'


- from the Foreword by Hilton Davis, Emeritus Professor of Child Health Psychology, King's College London


Parents of children with chronic illnesses experience 'extreme parenting'. Parenting under extreme circumstances, like an extreme sport, challenges us to find our true strengths, to push ourselves physically and emotionally.


This book is a guide and a source of support for parents of children with long-term illnesses. Sharon Dempsey argues that by helping parents to cope with their child's condition we are ultimately helping the child, and that parents are better able to live a full, enjoyable life if they have an awareness of strategies and knowledge to cope with the difficulties of dealing with their child with a chronic illness.


The guide is packed with practical advice, models of exploration and lists of action points, and will empower parents to be good advocates for their children. It will also provide health professionals with invaluable insights into the demands of living with chronic illness.

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Sharon Dempsey is a Belfast based writer of fiction and non-fiction books, with four health books published. She facilitates therapeutic creative writing classes for people affected by cancer and runs a creative writing group for young people, called Young Scribblers. Sharon studied Politics and English at Queen’s University and went on to City University to do a postgraduate diploma in journalism.

Through the Arts Council NI’s Support for the Individual Artist Programme, Sharon was awarded funding, to be mentored by Irish crime writer Louise Phillips, while writing Little Bird, her first crime novel.