Message to My Girl A Dying Father's Powerful Legacy of Hope

Doctor Jared Noel knew he was dying for almost six years, from the age of 25. But when it looked as though he would not live to see the birth of his child, he began a Givealittle crowd-funding campaign to raise money for a course of chemo treatment that would keep him alive long enough to meet his unborn child. This remarkable campaign, covered by nationwide media, raised an incredible $170,000 in two days. Jared not only lived to see Elise born but also enjoyed her first nine months. Jared's blog, initially written to alleviate boredom during rounds of chemotherapy, attracted hundreds of thousands of readers. He used it to challenge the taboos of death and dying with humor and unnerving honesty, and wrote with clinical precision and pragmatism. Jared had the knack of turning conversation stoppers into conversation starters. In his final weeks, Jared put his story together with the help of writer David Williams, primarily so that his baby daughter Elise might one day know her father. This is Jared's story, but it is also a profound meditation on life and death, and everything in between.

Dr Jared Noel was a young doctor whose inspirational blog The Boredom Blog outlined six years of living with cancer. He died in October 2014, leaving his wife Hannah and baby daughter Elise. David Wyn Williams is a writer and academic who works across the fields of journalism and theology. He has a PhD in theology, in which he specializes in relationships, suffering, and epistemology. He is the author of This Little Piggy Stayed Home: Barlow, Chambers and the Mafia.