'Second Chances' on the BBC

Publicity for Second Chances: true stories of living with Addison's disease has taken an upturn.

The major Addison's charities in the UK, the USA, Canada and Australia generously agreed to pass information about the e-book to their members. The UK group will be running a feature about it in their newsletter, and the Australian group will run a feature about Nur, one of the contributors.

The BBC World Service radio programme 'Health Check' have now interviewed me about it, and this interview was first broadcast on 6 February. It'll be repeated on 7 Feb, and will be available as a podcast for 30 days. You'll also be able to 'listen again' to the broadcast on the World Service for a full year. Good news, indeed!

I've listed links at the bottom of this blog post.

It was very exciting, going along to the BBC studios at Pacific Quay in Glasgow to record the interview. For once in my life, I arrived early. It was no hardship to sit in the BBC café, and watch the comings and goings. Was that a star from TV? And were all those people streaming out of one door and into another students on a tour? Then about a dozen members of an orchestra blew in from the windy outside world, clutching their coats and scarves around them, and their battered and well-travelled violin cases.

The BBC studios are beside the river Clyde, which was the former heart of shipbuilding, with one fifth of all ships in the world made there. On the day I visited, the river was silvery and glinting like the window frontage of the neighbouring Glasgow Science Centre and the BBC Scotland building itself.

Soon, I was ushered into the little darkened studio. I was given headphones and a seat, and was pointed to the big yellow microphone for my call to Health Check. I'm not cut out for showbiz in any form, but producer Helena and presenter Claudia quickly set me at ease. The red light went on to show we were recording, and the next fifteen minutes went too quickly. What struck me most was that I couldn't stop myself from repeating the same verbal tics over and over. How many times did I hear myself say, 'Exactly!'? Thankfully, those, and all the 'ahs' and 'ums', were removed after the interview.

The result is a very fine, professional broadcast. Hats off to Helena and Claudia! In eight minutes, we gave a summary of what Addison's is, how it affects people, and how and why I went about compiling the e-book of life writing, Second Chances. The interview also includes mention of Jasmine's story and an excerpt from Hilary's, read by an actor. All in all, it was a very worthwhile experience!

Here are the links:

BBC World Service 'Health Check' interview http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002vsyw  (6 Feb 2013 edition. The part about Addison's starts 9.30 minutes in.)

And here's a feature the BBC have written about it, on their Health News pages: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21388452

PotHole Press - the publishers of Second Chances: true stories of living with Addison's disease http://potholepress.co.uk/

Addison's Disease Self-Help Group (UK charity) http://www.addisons.org.uk/
Canadian Addison Society http://www.addisonsociety.ca/
National Adrenal Diseases Foundation (USA charity) http://www.nadf.us/
Australian Addison's Disease Association http://www.addisons.org.au/ 

Also of interest:

http://www.4philip.org/ - set up to raise awareness of Addison's disease after the death of Philip Hart, aged only 22.

Those with secondary Addison's may be interested in USA Pituitary diseases organisation https://www.pituitary.org/  and the UK's Pituitary Foundation http://www.pituitary.org.uk/

Biography of Jonathan Fisher, a contributor to Second Chances http://www.amazon.com/AUGUST-ALWAYS-JONATHAN-FISHER-ebook/dp/B009LADMK0/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1360231809&sr=1-4

Buy Second Chances: true stories of living with Addison's disease 

UK, on Kindle

Worldwide, on Kindle

Worldwide, on Kobo

You can talk about it on Goodreads, too!

Available from ibooks very soon

Second Chances: true stories of living with Addison's disease is an e-book, but you don't need an e-book reader to be able to read it. Just download the free 'app' from the Kindle or Kobo site linked to above, and then you'll be able to read e-books on your computer, laptop, tablet computer or even smartphone!