Because of Brett: A View of Grief Without Pigeon Holes

I am just a mum who couldn’t even save her child from dying, who am I to write a book about grief and grieving? My son Brett was just thirteen-years-old when he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. He was very sick and could only be offered experimental treatment. Brett (18), came home on Christmas Eve to die at home. 

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I am just a mum who couldn’t even save her child from dying, who am I to write a book about grief and grieving? 


My son Brett was just thirteen-years-old when he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. He was very sick and could only be offered experimental treatment. Brett went on to have over five years of cancer treatment. We were told on the 23rd December 2013 that there was nothing more they could do. Brett (18), came home on Christmas Eve (2013) to die at home. 


At the time, I felt my family and friends deserted us. But the reality was, they didn’t know what to do or say. No one talks about death and grieving. After devouring books from ‘grief experts’, I decided that no one knew what they were doing when it came to grief. Well, not my version of grief anyway. So, I set out to write my own book about it. In Because Of Brett I share my experiences both before and after Brett’s death. My aim is to end the awkward silences around death – it is a story of grief without the clichés.