ONE minute you're on cloud nine, the other you're in a doctor's office receiving a breast cancer diagnosis. Life can be cruel.
And so it was for Bev Arnold who, at the age of 69, realised a childhood dream - to release her debut country music CD, Never too Late.
Just months later she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Her book, A Patchwork of Pink, follows Bev's cancer journey - from a "bothersome intrusion" to a "deepening despondency" as her life changed.
There was surgery and chemotherapy - and, of course, advice from others.
"I found when word got around that I had breast cancer, a plethora of 'natural' cancer treatments, therapies and 'guaranteed cures' began to surface," Bev writes. "Some suggestions possibly plausible, while others spuriously contentious."
She decided to give "the medically recognised devil the first shot".
The book follows Bev as she has seemingly endless doctor visits, chemotherapy, selects a wig ... and tries her hardest to find a stand to sit it on. "I tried plopping the wig on an upturned mixing bowl, balancing it on a tall storage jar - even tried draping it over a small lampshade. Hmm... no good."
A professional camera tripod finally did the trick topped with an inverted cats' bowl!
Bev's love for, and involvement with, the local wildlife, including monitors Monty and Micky, crows and lorikeets, offered welcome distractions throughout the process.
- A Patchwork of Pink, by Bev Arnold, Balboa Press, $22.50 from www.bevarnold.org
