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Outlook: The epic road trip that taught me how to live again

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Suleika Jaouad

16/09/2021 GMT

The epic road trip that taught me how to live again

BBC World Service - Outlook, The epic road trip that taught me how to live again

After surviving cancer in her twenties, Suleika Jaouad felt she'd forgotten how to live.

Suleika Jaouad's newspaper columns about facing cancer in her twenties received a huge response, but she would end up needing her readers more than she ever could have imagined.

After graduating from university, Suleika Jaouad had moved to Paris, found love and was starting to pursue her dream of becoming a foreign correspondent. But a leukaemia diagnosis at 22 put an end to all of this. She returned to the US and began life-saving treatment that would take an enormous toll. Determined to try and regain some sense of control, she began writing about her experience and eventually landed a regular column with the New York Times called "Life, Interrupted". Her words moved many readers, who inundated her with letters about their own experiences of disease and lives changed in an instant. After three gruelling years in and out of hospital, Suleika was better but realised that having survived she now needed to learn how to live again. She went on a 100-day road trip around the country to meet some of her readers in the hope that they could help her find her place in the world.

Presenter: Emily Webb
Producer: Kevin Ponniah

Picture: Suleika Jaouad (Courtesy Suleika Jaouad)

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

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