In my head, I stop speaking. This is the first time I’ve said the ‘C’ word aloud and I say it to this angry, horrible woman whose child, I’m sure, is perfectly healthy.

Andrea & Adrienne: 14 years & 4 months old respectively © August 1986

Better Off Bald chronicles my sister Adrienne’s 147-day battle with liver cancer; the book also shows how I reared Adrienne from the time she was eight until she died at the age of fifteen. For more information about primary liver cancer, go to Blue Faery: The Adrienne Wilson Liver Cancer Association.