1. Australian writer and host of the ABC’s The Drum Julia Baird has revealed that she has been treated for cancer.
In an exquisite column for The New York Times Julia explained that she had been away from work having tumours removed.
The cancer was discovered last June.
In a column that shimmers with faith, hope and love, Julia says she initially felt bloated, saying: “My clothes had grown snug … it felt as if I was carrying a baby. The enormous tumours that silently grew inside me suddenly ballooned without warning one weekend, pushing my belly out into an arc.”
Julia waited two weeks for surgery, a time she describes thus: “When I walked it felt eerily similar to being pregnant — organs cramped, squashed up against one another. When I wasn’t concentrating, I was sure I’d feel a kick and my hands would creep to my belly, as though protecting an infant. Then I would remember. It was not a baby. It was a mass the size of a basketball, living in between my belly button and my spine. Soon I was almost waddling with it. A dark, murderous infant.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be operated on or exorcised.”
Julia was initially diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer, and she was told that her prognosis was not good.
She writes of the day she was getting her son and daughter ready for school when she got bad news.
“I was buttering sandwiches for their lunches when my surgeon called to tell me it looked as though it had spread to my liver.
“I bit my lip, sliced the sandwiches in half, and held my children’s little hands tightly as we walked down the hill to the local red-brick primary school.”
Julia says her most recent results suggest she is free of cancer and she intends to return to work. Besides the Times column and hosting The Drum, she is working on a biography of Queen Victoria.
2. Rosie O’Donnell’s adopted daughter has left home to live with her biological mother.
Foxs News reports that Chelsea O’Donnell made the decision to move as soon as she turned 18.
The report quotes Rosie’s representative saying: “Chelsea made a decision when she turned 18 that she wanted to go to her birth mother. This was her choice.”
This decision comes less than a fortnight after Rosie sent out a frantic social media alert, saying Chelsea as missing, and maybe not taking medication.
“Chelsea was found at the home of 25-year-old Steven Sheerer,” the report says, and Sheerer faces charges of child endangerment and distribution of obscenity to a minor.
His bail was set at $40,000 cash, and he faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
3. One of the world’s best-selling writers of historical novels has helped save the life of his old history teacher.
Fox News reports that Brad Meltzer dedicated his 2013 blockbuster, History Decoded, to his old history teacher, Ellen Sherman, from North Miami Beach Senior High School.
She got in touch, and told Brad she was suffering from a kidney disease and needed a transplant.
Brad shared her story with his 100,000 Facebook followers, in the hope of finding a match.
The successful transplant took place last Wednesday.
“I make my living writing thrillers and kids’ books about history,” Meltzer tells the Miami Herald. “How much more could I owe my history teacher? This woman changed my life.”
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