Rachael's new chapter spurred by health issue

A LIFE-threatening lung condition in pregnancy motivated a Devonport mum to fulfill her dream of writing and illustrating children’s books.

Rachael Atkins was only two weeks away from her due date in October 2019 when she started experiencing agonising chest pains.

“It was Halloween night, of all things,” Rachael said. “I started getting pain in my chest like heartburn and it just got worse and worse. I was very lucky to have had an uneventful pregnancy until then and suddenly I was in the Emergency Department. It turned out I had blood clots on both my lungs, a bilateral pulmonary embolism, which can be fatal.” A week later, Rachael’s baby girl was delivered safely by C-section.

“My husband and I felt so blessed to have our daughter,” Rachael said. “But it was also a very dark and scary time, mentally and physically. A few months later the whole country was going through a very dark and scary time with Covid. I think all of that affected the way I thought about things. I didn’t want to put anything off. I had dreamed, like a lot of people, of writing books for a long time and I decided to just do it.”