A woman’s new book aims to help people living with mental pain and struggling to survive, and is inspired by her own battles with cancer.

56-year-old Lazonby woman Jacci Bulman suffered a brain tumour just weeks before she was due to take her final exams at Oxford at the age of 22.

Missing out on the crucial exams, she underwent brain surgery to remove the tumour, only for it to return six months later, requiring additional surgery and radiotherapy.

All this was after she was diagnosed with chronic post-viral fatigue after having glandular fever, and was followed by skin cancer at age 45, and an auto-immune rheumatological disease.

Her new book – Talk Hope, Healing, and Being a Survivor – details lessons learned while experiencing great psychological pain and how to live as a ‘survivor’ while you can.

“It’s very much not about how to survive, because no one can tell anyone how to survive things, it’s about living as a survivor right now," she said.

“I’ve given the book to someone who has terminal cancer, because it’s about surviving while you’re alive,” she explained, adding that the analogical use of a boat in the rapids is indicative of unpredictable dangers while staying mindful.

“Being a survivor means you have optimism that you’ll get through, and even when getting knocked out the boat, you get back in again.

“You’ll do whatever it takes to be a guardian of your best interests.”

One recurring theme is fear, and how Mrs Bulman used mindfulness meditation – which involves noticing feelings and coming to peace with them rather than fighting or trying to ‘fix’ things via analysis – to cope.

“Without doing a lot of thinking and analysis, healing comes from inside you,” she said.

Mrs Bulman grew up in the terraced streets of a town near Accrington, and her family moved to the Lakes later.

She then went to study human sciences at Oxford’s St John’s College; while she couldn’t complete her final exams, she was awarded a full degree with honours afterwards for her accomplishments while studying.

During this time she learned more about mindfulness and is now a teacher of the practice and a practitioner of angelic reiki healing at Angel Cards and Gifts in Penrith, which she and her husband run.

The book uses her personal experiences to draw life lessons which she wishes to impart to readers and features interviews with other ‘survivors’, including an addict, a victim of racist bullying, someone who experienced political persecution in the USSR, and someone with depression.

Her book is free to download from her website - https://thelovethatweare.org/ - or as a physical book from Amazon for £9.99.

She will run a mindfulness retreat at her old college from August 30 to September 1, and one near Dacre on July 6, details of which can be found on her website.