Alison Porter – författare

Welcome to your breast cancer self-care bible.Stronger Than Before is the book Alison Porter went looking for when she first learned she had breast cancer. It's a practical handbook to guide you - and your friends and family - through every stage of the illness, from early diagnosis to treatment choices, and ultimately to a life beyond cancer. In this book, you'll discover: · the different types of breast cancer, what to ask your doctor and how to make the choices that are right for you · self-help techniques on every level - physical, emotional, mental and spiritual - to support you through treatment and recovery · how to view your illness as a catalyst for post-traumatic growth, and move on with your life with greater meaning and purpose · your options for reconstruction and how to maintain a cancer-preventative lifestyle · advice for friends and family, so they can be truly helpful in how they offer you support Containing invaluable information, guidance and tips, as well as tools and techniques, this book will help you to emerge from this life-changing experience more healthy and purposeful, and stronger than before.

Improving health in populations in which health is poor is a complex process. This book argues that the traditional government approach of exhorting individuals to live healthier lifestyles is not enough - action to promote public health needs to take place not just through public agencies, but also by engaging community assets and resources in their broadest sense.The book reports lessons from the experience of planning, establishing and delivering such action by the five-year Sustainable Health Action Research Programme (SHARP) in Wales. It critically examines the experience of SHARP in relation to current literature on policy; community health and health inequalities; and action research. The authors make clear how this regional development has produced opportunities for developing general concepts and theory about community-based policy developments that are relevant across national boundaries and show that complex and sustained community action, and effective local partnership, are fundamental components of the mix of factors required to address health inequalities successfully.The book concludes by indicating the connections between SHARP and earlier traditions of community-based action, and by arguing that we need to be bolder in our approaches to community-based health improvement and more flexible in our understanding of the ways in which knowledge and inform developments in health policy.The book will be of interest to practitioners and activists working in community-based projects; students in community development, health studies and medical sociology; professionals working in health promotion, community nursing and allied areas; and policy makers working at local, regional and national levels.