At her home in the UK, writer and medical historian Lindsey Fitzharris has spent the past couple of months suspended in uncertainty after a breast cancer diagnosis in August threw everything into turmoil.
Earlier this year, she released her book The Facemaker, about Kiwi surgeon Harry Gillies' groundbreaking work on World War I soldiers whose faces were so badly damaged that their features sometimes weren't there at all.
Fitzharris spent years reading diaries, archives and medical notes, sourcing permission from families to talk about the men whom Gillies so profoundly affected. Fitzharris, who holds a PhD in the history of science and medicine from the University of Oxford and is the writer and host of the Smithsonian Channel series The Curious Life and Death of..., was fully into the swing of promotion for the book. She had interviews and media appearances lined up for the rest of the year when she found a lump in her breast.
She immediately went to get it checked out. It wasn't cancer - but doctors found a lump next to it that was.
It is, at least, early stage. Fitzharris says she was extremely lucky she'd pushed for a mammogram - she says it wasn't necessarily certain that she would have got one otherwise, and the lump would have grown silently undetected until it became too big to ignore.
"I am shocked, frightened, elated, confused, grateful - basically, all the feelings," she says. "I keep asking myself, 'Why me?" But then again, 'Why not me?""
FACES REPAIRING The Facemaker is published in New Zealand on November 1, and is an engrossing, pacey and exhaustively researched read about Sir Harold Gillies, the pioneering Kiwi plastic surgeon who spent a significant part of his career repairing faces blown apart.
This story is from the November 05, 2022 edition of New Zealand Listener.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the November 05, 2022 edition of New Zealand Listener.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
First-world problem
Harrowing tales of migrants attempting to enter the US highlight the political failure to fully tackle the problem.
Applying intelligence to AI
I call it the 'Terminator Effect', based on the premise that thinking machines took over the world.
Nazism rears its head
Smirky Höcke, with his penchant for waving with a suspiciously straight elbow and an open palm, won't get to be boss of either state.
Staying ahead of the game
Will the brave new world of bipartisanship that seems to be on offer with an Infrastructure Commission come to fruition?
Grasping the nettle
Broccoli is horrible. It smells, when being cooked, like cat pee.
Hangry? Eat breakfast
People who don't break their fast first thing in the morning report the least life satisfaction.
Chemical reaction
Nitrates in processed meats are well known to cause harm, but consumed from plant sources, their effect is quite different.
Me and my guitar
Australian guitarist Karin Schaupp sticks to the familiar for her Dunedin concerts.
Time is on my side
Age does not weary some of our much-loved musicians but what keeps them on the road?
The kids are not alright
Nuanced account details how China's blessed generation has been replaced by one consumed by fear and hopelessness.