In the final years of a brilliant career, I was living the dream with a beautiful family, a breathtaking home, and a beloved husband. Timebomb is a medical drama that begins when my past caught up with me, catapulting me from my beautiful life into a seven-year battle with lung cancer. It’s a story of human frailty and human strength.

The interweaving of personal narrative and the true crime understory of the tobacco advertising Mad Men exposes the tactics used to push women to become smokers in the same way the Sacklers enlisted physicians to push OxyContin. It’s a story that challenges the stigma that smokers are less deserving of care and advocates for early detection screening for lung cancer. As a former marketing executive, it’s a story I’m uniquely qualified to tell.

Cancer is a formidable opponent, and total eradication is the only line of defence. These two truths propelled me into a series of encounters which forced me to sacrifice almost half of my lungs to excise the enemy. Caught in a race between death by disease or death by cure, love and purpose proved indispensable to facing mortality with grace and courage.