Dad’s cancer book to offer help and hope after his daughter survived ‘inoperable’ tumour

When Stephen Bennett’s daughter Leah was diagnosed with a life-threatening tumour, he turned to his laptop for comfort — documenting every moment in a journal that became his emotional lifeline.

Now, the St Helens dad has published In Her Best Interests, a book based on that journal, in the hope it will help other families going through the unthinkable.

“It was my way of processing what was happening,” he says.

“At the time, my mother-in-law was battling cancer so I felt I couldn’t really talk to my wife about the things I needed to get out of me.

“My family was struggling. My wife’s family was struggling. And my laptop became my lifeline.”

Stephen admits: “I’d tap away about the things that had happened, because it helped me to document it all.

“It was difficult, and it was upsetting, but as well as the darker moments there were funny things that lifted me.”

Now Stephen’s turned his journal into a book, In Her Best Interests, to help other people going through what his family did. 

“It’s the book I’d have wanted to read when we were going through it all, so I hope that it can help someone else – and maybe raise money for Alder Hey where Leah was treated.”

Leah, from Bold in St Helens, was only six years old when, in 2019, she survived and recovered from a tumour on her spine that many felt was too risky to remove. The large mass was wrapped around major blood vessels including her aorta and the arteries feeding Leah’s legs.

Using 3D printing technology and a high-resolution scanner to create a detailed model of the tumour Leah’s surgical team worked out how they could remove it. And, despite fears keen footballer Leah could bleed to death during surgery or be left paralysed – and with only a 10% chance of success – the team in Liverpool went ahead.

“If they didn’t operate, she would probably have only survived for another six months,” says dad Stephen, a 44-year-old NHS hospital manager. “She was already in a wheelchair because she was struggling to walk. It was horrendous.”

The surgery was a success, removing 95% of the tumour and Leah went on to have radiotherapy. Despite a brief relapse in 2020, daily medication has kept everything stable ever since.

“Leah is now 12 coming to the end of Year 8, and she’s already got the sass and attitude of a teenager,” smiles Stephen. “But it’s miraculous that we are where we are now from where we were in 2018 Leah was first diagnosed.”

Stephen had never planned to write the book, but it was when he returned to work and colleagues said how amazing her story was that the idea began to take hold.

“People said I should write a book, and I looked at my laptop and I had about 30 pages of my thoughts, and interesting things that I don’t think I’d have remembered a few years later, certainly not in such detail – and probably not the nicer bits.

“I can remember asking Alder Hey at the time if I could talk to another dad whose child had gone through something similar and come through the other side, but there was no-one they could put me in touch with.

“This was the book that I needed and I so I thought I’m going to do it. I felt it was my duty. It’s to show that there is always hope, there’s help; and if I’d had a book like this, it would have made such a difference.”

Stephen has teamed up with The Book Guild to publish the book, and any profit he makes will be shared with Alder Hey’s Children’s Charity.

He says it’s essentially a diary of the eight months Leah was being treated before the life-saving op, ‘with a little bit before and after’.

“It’s day by day, punctuated with reflections; about Leah, about me, and about other people that were part of the journey.”

It includes details of the charities, some small and lesser-known, that helped Stephen, wife Claire, 44, and their older daughter Phoebe, who’s 15; and ways in which those around can support you.

“Sometimes people want to help but just don’t know how,” continues Stephen. “But we had family who would come and stay over with Leah while she had her six-day chemo treatments so me and Claire could go out walking and clear our heads, or get some rest.

“My best friend’s parents-in-law came to our house with £1,000 because they said they didn’t know what else to do but they wanted to help.  I didn’t want to take it, but I was off work and didn’t know if I’d get to the point where I got nothing and with a mortgage and bills to pay, I accepted it.

“I was lucky that I did go back to work, and because they didn’t want to take the money back, we used it for a huge celebration we’d promised Leah we’d have when she was going through a really dark time and had said she didn’t want to carry on.”

And includes fun: like when Harry Potter fan Leah was bought Bertie Bott’s Jelly Beans which contain a mix of nice and nasty-flavoured sweets: “Leah was roaring with laughter as she got the nurses – and her senior oncologist – to play jelly bean roulette! Moments like that were pure gold.”

Stephen says: “I never thought I would write a book but I hope I have done it, Leah, Alder Hey, and all those who helped us, justice.

“It was a therapy for me and shows how you can create positives out of a very negative and dark part of your life, and I hope it will help others in a situation like we were in – and offer hope.

“If you’d asked me in 2019 if we’d be where we are now, I wouldn’t have believed you. So I’m so grateful for what we have and for all the help we received to get here.”

In Her Best Interests is available from Amazon.

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