The slow and often painful birth of a revolution

Today's blog is from Robin Daly, Chairman & Founder of Yes To Life, who shares the story behind the new book, The Cancer Revolution.

One thing that parents will tell you is that there’s pretty much no way to explain to someone who hasn’t ‘been there’ what all the fuss is about. It all seems straightforward enough, especially to would-be parents. I’ve come to realise that, in this at least, creating a complex book shares some common territory.

As long ago as 2010(!) we started hatching a plan for an incredible book about Integrative Medicine that was going to be the No 1 resource for people with cancer who want to look ‘outside the box’. I could already picture it in Waterstone’s shop window, with a beautiful Yes to Life logo proudly adorning the front cover. Slowly, slowly the pieces of the jigsaw fell into place: Patricia Peat was the obvious choice of author due to her unparalleled overview of the territory, and many other clear candidates for contributors were identified as Patricia and I honed the structure of the book. Then began the long task of asking for contributions and slowly piecing together the first rough draft.

Throughout this journey, we have been beyond fortunate in the generosity the project has attracted from writers, designer, proofreaders, editor, researchers and more. These beneficial relationships that have made the project a possibility, have also had an effect on the pace of the project, as you can’t afford to be too precious  or demanding about your deadlines when you’re dealing with busy professionals who are  going out of their way to help!