ALTHOUGH she knows she is dying, Kate Granger refuses to give up on life’s little chores.

That’s why she insists on ironing her husband Chris’s shirts. And why she’s back at work as a doctor.

Despite suffering from terminal cancer, the 31-year-old who grew up in Huddersfield knows it is important to maintain as much normality as possible in her life and preserve rituals.

Especially now she has decided to give up on intrusive chemotherapy treatment and let nature take its course.

Impressively, she is still working regularly at her job as a doctor at Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield.

It’s the job she always wanted from the age of eight and she loves what she does.

And she is working hard on her bucket list – memorable experiences she wants to enjoy while there is still time.

So she has had tea at The Savoy in London and spent days in Paris and Barcelona.

She said: “I was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive terminal form of sarcoma in August 2011.

“As part of my bucket list I have challenged myself together with my husband Chris to raise £50,000 for the Yorkshire Cancer Centre before I die.”

A huge chunk of this money is coming from sales of her books The Other Side and The Bright Side, which tell her story.

Chris walked the West Highland Way in August and raised about £7,000 for that and has been working hard on charity events at Asda House, where he works.

They both walked the Jane Tomlinson Walk For All 13-mile Windermere event last month and Kate said: “It was a real struggle for me, but we got there in the end.”

Describing the time when she was diagnosed in July 2011, she says: “It’s just one of those awful things. I had always been healthy and active.

“I never thought: ‘Why me?’ I have always been very accepting. Right, this has happened and we have to get on with it.”

By ‘we’, she means her husband Chris, who has struggled to come to terms with losing his bride so early in such ghastly circumstances.

The Huddersfield born-and-bred woman is matter-of-fact about what has happened to her and says she is not scared of death, though the process of dying has presented her with more than enough terrifying moments.

Given her experience as a doctor she is all too acutely aware that resuscitations are not the sanitised affairs that are portrayed on Casualty, but as she describes it herself: “It’s brutal, undignified, a horrible process with only a small percentage surviving.”

Kate wrote the book throughout her treatment and she hopes that many doctors will read it and that her words will help them to be better doctors – putting themselves in the patient’s place and helping them to appreciate better the fears and concerns of their patients as they tackle the treatment and the knowledge, in some cases, that they will not make a recovery.

Kate is literally and clinically one in two million with the rare form of cancer she has – and it is incurable.

She said: “I think I was a good doctor before but these observations have made me a much better doctor.

“Over the last couple of months I’ve had some tough cases and I have got more empathy. That’s one of the aims of the book.”

And reading her compelling diary it’s all too easy to imagine the mental distress she occasionally succumbs to.

Even when friends impart their good news it’s often a bittersweet experience. Two of her best friends have got engaged, but she has no guarantee she will be around to witness the weddings.

The aggressive disease affects just one in two million people, usually children and teenagers. Kate underwent chemotherapy for four months last year, but was terribly unwell.

She explains in her book how she decided on New Year’s Eve not to have further treatment.

Kate said: “I had just got to the point where the burden of chemotherapy was outweighing any benefit it was giving me.

“Three weeks after I made the decision I was back at work. I am very matter of fact about dying and death.

“I think the quality of your life is much more important than the quantity.”

The Other Side and The Bright Side – Dr Granger’s account of her life are available for £10. Proceeds are for Yorkshire Cancer Centre Appeal. See the website: www.theothersidestory.co.uk

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