Shadow of a Survivor

Non-Fiction

Pages: 194 Ratings:

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At just eighteen, he received a devastating diagnosis: cancer. The prognosis was grim: “You will not survive.” What followed was an agonising battle through the depths of failed treatments, where hope flickered like a distant light.

Eight years after defying the odds, life delivered another cruel twist—his four-year-old daughter was diagnosed with terminal leukaemia.

His journey is one of extraordinary resilience. Yet, he returned to the very hospital that once held his fate—this time as a senior cancer nurse specialist, dedicating his life to those walking the same path.

From appearing on rock festival stages to visiting the sacred lands of the Lakota Sioux Nation, his life is a testament to survival, transformation, and the unbreakable human spirit.

Now, fifty years on, he is honoured to be one of the UK’s longest cancer survivors.

His memoir is an award-winning chronicle of perseverance, faith, and the profound power of the human will.

John Walker Pattison was born on Monday, 4th February 1957 to parents John and Ruby. He has lived most of his years in the wonderful seaside town of South Shields and enjoyed an uneventful, but happy childhood.

Today, Pattison enjoys being the practical joker, especially with his grandchildren. He openly admits to spending his school days clowning around and neglecting his intellectual chemistry, subsequently leaving school with a handful of worthless qualifications.

In 1973, he started work in a local shipyard until the spectre of cancer gripped his future in a deathly stranglehold. What happened next is his unique story, Shadow of a Survivor.