Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir

Walela is diagnosed with advanced stage blood cancer at twenty-three, leading to a difficult journey of treatment, discrimination, and self-realization. They navigate personal relationships and share their story online, finding support from their ancestors. Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir is a galvanizing account of survival against the U.S. medical system and the struggle to face death unafraid.

Format: Hardback
Length: 400 pages
Publication date: 24 January 2024
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers

When Walela is diagnosed with advanced-stage blood cancer at the age of twenty-three, they are abruptly thrust into the unsympathetic world of tubes, pills, doctors who refuse to use their correct pronouns, and hordes of well-intentioned but patronising people offering unsolicited advice as they navigate the rocky terrain of personal relationships and share their story online. However, this experience also deepens their connection to their ancestors, providing them with added support from another realm. Walela's diagnosis becomes a catalyst for their self-realisation. As they fill out forms in the insurance office in downtown Los Angeles or travel to therapy in wealthier neighbourhoods, they begin to understand that cancer is where all forms of their oppression intersect: disabled, fat, black, queer, nonbinary.

In Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir, the author details a galvanising account of their survival despite the U.S. medical system, and of the struggle to face death unafraid. Content Warning: death, illness, racism, medical neglect, suicide attempt.

Weight: 493g
Dimension: 216 x 146 x 35 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780593529492