Back to Life

One woman's inspiring triumph over a series of terminal diagnoses

Non-Fiction - Inspirational
174 Pages
Reviewed on 07/17/2016
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Author Biography

Kathy McLaughlin lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and has two grown children. She works as a management consultant and executive
coach, plays tennis, golfs, hikes, kayaks, skis, cooks, reads, writes, and walks; and is generally enjoying every minute of her life. She is currently working on her second book, on a self study companion book to Back to Life.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite

Back to Life by Kathy McLaughlin is succinctly described in the subtitle as one woman's inspiring triumph over a series of terminal diagnoses, and is a nonfiction work with a great potential to inspire hope and help those traversing hardship to find the courage to live each day at a time. Kathy was a successful corporate employee, enjoying her job and looking into the future with hope, and she’d just turned forty when she was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. Without losing hope, she embarked on the journey towards healing, but not long after that, she’d be informed by specialists that the disease was back and, to make a bad case worse, she also learned that she had an incurable liver disease. In this memoir, she invites readers to walk with her through the painful path of healing, a path punctuated by two liver transplants, chemotherapy, surgery, and other life-threatening experiences. What keeps her going? How does one survive another day knowing their days are numbered?

Kathy McLaughlin’s Back to Life is a powerful message of hope, a true story that masterfully documents how a woman can allow her pain to transform her into a patient, hopeful, loving, and happy person. It takes a lot of courage to open one’s wounded and broken humanity to others the way McLaughlin does, but there is life flowing from her wounds, and her pain will undoubtedly become a path that many people can travel into life. Pain can break the human spirit and turn the human being into a lonely and bitter person, but when accepted, it becomes an inspiration, and this seems to be a central theme in this book. This is one of those nonfiction books that will inspire hope in the hopeless and drive home the truth that there is always something to look forward to. The book is well-written and uplifting.