Lilac Haze: Love, loss and what can happen when you dare to hope

Organ donation - how many of us actually sits down with our loved ones and has a conversation about what should happen to us if the worst happened and we died before our time? How many of us would become a live donor and offer a kidney to help another person? The loss of a parent is devastating, but when, as an adult, you find yourself with the same condition from which your father died, and you know the only way you can survive is through daily reliance on a kidney machine, your world falls apart; everything you thought you knew and understood before becomes farcical; all that you had built around you is suddenly fragmented, and your mind creates a barrier which stops you from fully comprehending the enormity of what you're about to go through. Your kidneys have given up on you, and all you can do is submit to your fate. But then a solution is offered when your husband offers you his kidney and hesitantly, reluctantly, you go for it. This is one family's journey, with two stories entwined across five decades. It is a true account of the strength of the human spirit when faced with adversity. In this book, from personal experience, she explores the issues of organ donation, generosity, grief, and the human-animal bond. It is a story that readers will find thought-provoking and captivating. This is a true memoir of love, loss, grief and what can happen when you dare to hope. By the author of 'A Dog Like Ralph', 'A Soldier Like Jack' and 'The Diary of a Human and a Dog'. Dumfries and Galloway Life Magazine's 'Book of the Month' for April 2014 (Southwest Scotland). "...an excellent read." National Kidney Federation's Kidney Life Magazine - Summer 2013. Clare Cogbill was born in the mid-1960s and has spent much of her adult life working with animals, and as a lecturer. In June 2002 she received her husband's kidney.