A GRANDMOTHER, whose life was blighted by cancer and the death of her daughters’ unborn babies, worked through her demons by writing her autobiography, which has just been published.

Patricia Parkes, from Oldbury, was angry at the pain her two daughters had endured when they each lost a baby and by her own delayed diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

She was in a dark place and sought help from a therapist, but found her patronising. However, when Mrs Parkes told her she could write a book about all that had happened in her life, it was the counsellor who spurred her on saying “why don’t you then?”

After jotting down notes on her laptop nine years ago, she started seriously writing her book about four years ago.

Daughters Tammy and Rebecca gave it the seal of approval and encouraged her to have it published.

Mrs Parkes, now the proud nan of six grandchildren, was “surprised” when London publishes Austin Macauley agreed a print run of Glad to be Alive.

The 61-year-old said: “It’s weird, it feels surreal looking at it and knowing people are buying it - it doesn’t seem real, I don’t think it’s sunk in yet.”

Taking her therapist’s advice, she goes back to her childhood in the book - she was the fourth eldest in a family of 11 children and her earliest memory as a toddler is of her brother screaming when his finger was caught in the washing mangle.

“I’m not a celebrity, just an everyday person and I think people can associate with that,” she said, adding: “I am a determined person and once I had said ‘I’m going to write a book’ and told people, I had no choice but to carry on.”

Mrs Parkes, of Ascot Close, said husband Wiiliam, aged 62, was equally surprised, but very proud.

and she is looking forward to a book signing at Halesowen’s WH Smith on Saturday December 14.

The book can be bought from the WH Smith and from online companies, including Amazon, and Mrs Parkes has already started a second book of more stories from her life but thinks that may stay unpublished to spare people’s blushes.