About Kate Allatt
Winner of Extraordinary Woman 2011. Finalist in the Jane Tomlinson award for Courage at the Yorkshire Women of Achievement Awards. Founder of her charity Fighting Strokes and inspirational speaker ... read more about Kate
Chat with her on @kateallatt or Kate Allatt on YouTube, or her or Fightingstrokes Facebook pages or on Twitter or her blogs: arockystrokerecovery.com & wheresrocky.wordpress.com and website kateallatt.com
These are inspirational true-story, non fiction books and here is what Kate sees the differences are in her words:
Running Free
- I 'stroke' swear alot!
- It's raw, honest, candid, there is a lot of non-self pitying humour, which will snap you out of moments of real sadness.
- It reveals the pressure my stroke had on my own relationship and very graphically.
- It reveals how wonderfully supportive friendships and my family were, to both me (and my family) during my 8 month stay in hospital.
- It's inspirational, though some people wouldn't want to be married to me, which I get. But that spirit got me here.
- It's positive.
- My true story had a great ending, even then.
- It's become a worldwide manual for health professionals and anyone affected by locked in syndrome.
- It deals with the separation anxiety from my beloved kids.
- Now, I'm not as I was then, which is another reason I wrote it so quickly after my stroke. My story has not been made glossy, it was totally real then and scarily honest.
- I'm proud of it for what it has done for my own kids legacy and to help educate others and change the world.
Gonna Fly Now!
- This second book is a log of my feelings, loneliness, my social withdrawal activities, a continuation of my lack of perceived worthiness, all our struggles re-adjusting to normal family life, and being a mum at home, when I was still so less able physically and emotionally and as a parent.
- My severe depression, my perceived abandonment from everyone, bar Mark as he remained my husband, (unusually for stroke survivors) and my remarkable friend Alison.
- It is written humorously and candidly and references many funny moments which thread firm my first book, but the underlying impression is it wasn't a 'happy ever after story' when we were reunited as a family and I was home from hospital and apparently 'normal' written how I see life.
- Sure, my family needed time to pick up the pieces of their broken lives too, but it was very, very tough as I was alone, and I 'stroke' withdrew from society, (apart from my social media obsession) as I still felt locked-in. Though it did chart my incredible fight back to my own perceived 'normality' with the other man in my life. (Chapter 5)
- It also sites just a few of the families touched by my story around the world, and they have been helped (chapter 14) and my charity in chapter 13.
- With my new found love and replacement to fell running, that being road cycling, my Where's Rocky blog, I am pretty good now and have moved on again, since I finished Gonna Fly Now!
- My own relationships are improving and we survived, so we are very, very thankful and very, very lucky indeed.
Perhaps you fancy putting both of my books your Amazon/ebook Xmas reading list this year? They are inspirational and there are happy endings!! ;)
EXCLUSIVE: Read the prologue >>
This is what her editor said: READ MORE >>
BUYING OPTIONS
Ways to purchase 'Gonna Fly Now!'
Paperback
Single orders:
Purchase on Amazon >>
Multiple orders (trade):
via Jeremy Mills Publishing Ltd >>
ISBN 978-0957136809
Limited Edition
Single signed copies
Available from June 2012.
Price £7.99 + £3.50 P&P
“I communicated by blinking to tell friends to hide the twinkly ocean wave music. I had a hole from my tracheotomy, not a blowhole. Perhaps as well as suffering from a major stroke doctors thought I had morphed into a b***** dolphin! I much preferred listening to The Smiths”.
"Kate's story is the most amazing and moving I have heard in my 26 years as a radio presenter."
BBC presenter Rony Robinson.
“Kate is remarkable in every way and living proof that all battles can be won, no matter what.”
Michael Finnigan i2i CEO and author of 'Impossible To Inevitable: The Catalyst for Positive Change'.
“As the story of a 'survivor personality' par excellence, it shows what grit, resilience and bloody-mindedness can sometimes achieve.”
Colin Feltham, Emeritus Professor of Counselling, Sheffield Hallam University.