Hi, I’m Josie. I’m 52 and live in Brighton with my husband, Emlyn Rees and we have three daughters (21,17,14). I’m the author of 19 novels and five parodies with Emlyn and write as Joanna Rees and Josie Lloyd. My latest novel, The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club is out now and I wrote it after my shock diagnosis for lobular breast cancer in 2017. I was called up to take part in a trial to test women under 50. I’d been to the doctor twice about a small dimple in the bottom of my left breast and had been sent away. So, thank God I was called up for the mammogram. My tumour was 5.5cm and I had a mastectomy, followed by six rounds of chemo and 20 sessions of radiotherapy. I’ve been on Tamoxifen, but I’m shortly to start on Letrozole.

After my treatment was finished and I was given the all clear, I felt very strongly that I wanted to write about the experience I’d been through. I have always turned to fiction to make sense of the world, but there seemed to be nothing out there that was telling the truth, but that was positive and hopeful. The book has had a great response from readers and press and is coming out early next year in America. I am a very positive person and often talk about not just surviving cancer, but thriving on the other side. I believe that by talking about breast cancer and shining a light on it, we can make it less scary.

I’m so interested in what LBCUK is doing, because I had very little information about Lobular breast cancer and I’ve found out more from reading the site than I ever have before about this variant of breast cancer.
Walking our Mammaries, LBCUK’s first fundraising event, is such a unique way to raise funds for the charity as we’re walking up mountains named after breasts such as the Mamores and the Pap of Glen Coe in Scotland.

I’m also an Ambassador for The Sussex Cancer Fund and have recently got a team together to run a 10K to raise funds. I’m excited by this bigger challenge where I can use my profile to make a difference to women like me, but not just in Sussex.