Fight for life that turned to fight for justice

THERE was a time Janette Byrne couldn’t bear the thought of people seeing her bald head. Now she has put it on the cover of a book for all to see.

What is inside the covers exposes her even more. There are intimate details of physical suffering, emotional pain and psychological trauma. Even her sex life gets an airing. The bald head is only the start — it is her soul that is laid most bare.

The woman who decided to tell her story in the book, If It Were Just Cancer: A Battle for Dignity and Life, published last month, is articulate, extrovert, passionate, yet collected — the consummate campaigner.