Lifesaving for Beginners
Praise for The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club
‘An inspiring read.’
Good Housekeeping
‘A wise, warm and wonderful novel … an incredibly moving, uplifting and hopeful story that looks at the power of finding your tribe. It will make you smile and love life just a little bit more.’
Adele Parks
‘I adore Josie Lloyd, I love her writing and you are in for an amazing, heart-breaking, inspiring treat – read this book.’
Jenny Colgan
‘[A] hopeful, uplifting read.’
The Sun
‘A pitch-perfect love letter to the power of friendship – honest, uplifting and straight from the heart.’
Jill Mansell
‘An honest read that, despite its heart-wrenching topic, will uplift and inspire you.’
Heat
‘What an engaging and life-affirming story! A page-turner, too, with such wonderful characters. I loved it!’
Rachel Hore
‘[A] homage to the power of friendship.’
Sunday Post
‘Brave, bold Josie Lloyd has written an incredibly important book. I was charmed by her light touch yet fearlessness in dealing with the deeply emotional subject matter. Every woman should read it.’
Veronica Henry
‘A searingly honest, but fiercely positive story about the importance of friendship and the power of hope told with Josie’s characteristic warmth and humour.’
Mike Gayle
‘This inspirational, hard-hitting, warm, and funny book pulsated with truth and experience. I laughed, cried, learnt a lot, and could NOT put it down. This one will be a huge summer hit.’
Louise Beech
‘I thoroughly enjoyed this honest, no-holds-barred story. It is by turns funny, inspiring and incredibly moving.’
Kathryn Hughes
‘An amazing story that shows us all the strength of the human spirit and the power of friendship. An inspiration!’
Magic Radio
‘Beautiful and brave, powerful and emotional. An incredibly special book. I cried and laughed and fell in love with the characters, I learnt about love, humility, honesty, kindness and compassion, and to cherish every day.’
Alex Brown
‘A moving and inspiring story.’
Bella
‘A story as honest as it is entertaining, and as funny as it is fearless. It is a novel that celebrates friendship and the messy wonder of family, and is an inspiring and insightful story that makes you want to tell your loved ones how amazing they are and then run up a mountain shouting ‘I CAN.’ It made me believe in life, in love and in the power we all have to overcome the worst – an unmissable, hopeful and life-changing read.’
Katie Marsh
‘Wonderful. A gorgeous, moving read.’
Cesca Major
‘Josie has done a wonderful job of treating the subject matter with such honesty, and infusing the story with a great sense of courage and hope … She’s found the perfect balance between the realities of what her characters are facing, and a very uplifting dose of inspiration and warmth … I think it will be so encouraging to anyone affected by cancer.’
Celia Reynolds
‘Uplifting and positive, you will be cheering them along.’
Prima
‘The crowning glory of this beautiful story is the network of deep friendships that develops to sustain and hearten the women of The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club. I’ve laughed, cried and cheered them on as I read. This book should be on prescription in every oncology ward and department throughout the country.’
Celia Anderson
‘This life-affirming book will make you weep – and jump for joy. A heart-warming story about bravery and compassion, friendship and family. Beautifully written, witty and moving.’
Freya North
‘A message of positivity and hope … A tale of friendship and love in all its capacities. Full of warmth that will make you glow from your post reading workout. It will have you crying and laughing in equal measure. This needs to be made into a blockbuster for sure.’
My Weekly
‘A gorgeously bittersweet novel, unflinching and heart-wrenching – you will need tissues – yet full of warmth, wit and joy. I was cheering on The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club right to the finish line.’
Eve Chase
‘Beautifully written with honesty, humour and fabulous characters – an inspiring story that’s not afraid to tell the truth.’
Jessica Ryn
‘I RACED through this warm, witty delight of a read about strength, endurance and friendship. A wonderful book.’
Suzy K Quinn
JOSIE LLOYD’S first novel, It Could Be You, was published in 1997 and since then she has written 19 bestselling novels (as Joanna Rees and other pen names), including the Sunday Times number one hit Come Together, which she co-authored with her husband, Emlyn Rees. Josie has also written several best-selling parodies with Emlyn, including We’re Going On A Bar Hunt, The Very Hungover Caterpillar and The Teenager Who Came To Tea. She lives beside the seaside with her family and dog, Ziggy, and goes swimming in the sea all year round. You can find her on Instagram @josielloydwriter or on Twitter @josielloydbooks
Also By Josie Lloyd
The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club
Copyright
An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2022
Copyright © Unomas Productions Ltd 2022
Josie Lloyd asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Ebook Edition © July 2022 ISBN: 9780008373672
Version 2022-06-15
Note to Readers
This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:
- Change of font size and line height
- Change of background and font colours
- Change of font
- Change justification
- Text to speech
- Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008373696
For the swimming gang
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea
– E.E. CUMMINGS
Contents
Cover
Praise
About the Author
Booklist
Title Page
Copyright
Note to Readers
Dedication
Epigraph
1. Bah Humbug
2. The Gravy Arc
3. Everybody’s Having Fun
4. New Friendship Turf
5. Pilcharding
6. Resolutions
7. Scatter Cushions
8. The Family Zoom
9. The Extension
10. Luna
11. Washing Away the Bad Juju
12. Dog Ambush
13. The Promise of Fireworks
14. Inner Superhero
15. Tent Call
16. Oystercatchers
17. Rob’s Declaration
18. Hard to Forgive
19. A Sliver of Hope
20. Snow Swim
21. A Glimpse into Next Door
22. Date Night
23. Quad Bike
24. Back to the Office
25. The Jab
26. Dawn Call
27. Life Drawing
28. Equinox
29. Home Hairdresser
30. Beach Clean
31. Bunny Ears
32. Bombshell
33. The Nightingale
34. Destruction
35. Home in a Box
36. Back on Call
37. Upfront and Honest
38. A Trip to Hampstead Pond
39. That Unmistakeable Profile
40. Full Moon Swim
41. The Unexpected Cwych
42. Caught Out
43. Shallow Water
44. From The Pier
45. Taking Flight
46. Eels
47. Facing Facts
48. Breakfast of Champions
49. The Betting Shop
50. A Promise Kept
51. A New Companion
52. Adios
53. A Family Celebration
54. Towards the Horizon
55. The Windfarm
56. Round the Pier
Acknowledgements
Reading Group Questions
Extract
New Year’s Eve
Chapter 1
About the Publisher
1
Bah Humbug
Christmas Day Morning
It’s only cold water. That’s all. After the shitshow of this year, cold water is nothing. Nothing, Dominica tells herself, as she peels the Velcro closed on her neoprene gloves and strides off towards the sea, her size ten boots making a loud trudging sound over the pebbles. She’s glad she’s made it here and forced her sorry carcass out of bed, although it was a close-run thing. But, as usual, Helga’s message on the Sea-Gals WhatsApp chat had persuaded her. It’s tradition, Helga had written. No excuses.
She knows she owes Helga and Tor an appearance this morning. They’re the ones who’ve looked out for her this year. Separately, they’ve both asked her to spend today with them, knowing it’s her first Christmas without Chris, but she’s politely declined their kind offers. She wants to be alone to wallow in her grief, although she vows now that she’s going to tidy up the tissue-strewn pit of their bedroom. Chris would have a fit if he could see it.
Along the beach there are little groups dotted as far as the eye can see in both directions, most people dressed for the cold, but many of them stripping off. With the drop in church attendance, maybe the sea is the new religion. It’s certainly a draw. Everyone is facing the water and the mood of celebration is palpable. She can hear the pop of a champagne cork (10 a.m. is a little early, but it’s Christmas Day, after all), whilst a young guy contemplatively skins up on the top of the largest concrete groyne. There’s a bagpiper in a kilt walking on the next beach and the reedy sound wafts over to where Dominica stands along with a tang of spliff smoke.
It used to make the national news: the nutters taking the plunge in the sea on Christmas morning, but cold water swimming has become all the rage and now the world and his wife have taken it up.
But who can blame them? Dominica thinks. There’s been bugger all else to do.
There are plenty of little flocks of swimmers already in the water, lots of them in woolly hats. A couple of show-offs are front-crawling further out, dragging their red tow floats behind them. She’d love to be able to swim like those Amazons out there in these winter months, but if she goes too far out of her depth, she gets a bit panicky. She knows that the sea is not to be taken for granted – even on a calm day like today. And, besides, she’s not fit enough to swim like that. Not any more. Not after a year of sitting on her arse eating biscuits.
Until the pandemic hit, Dominica had never been idle – not once during her fifty-six years. That’s probably because her parents had instilled a rock-solid work ethic in her and a belief that the colour of her skin meant she needed to prove herself twice as much. As an operations manager for a large travel company, she’s been the consummate multi-tasker, but with the skies emptied and holidays cancelled, her whole department has been put on furlough. At least, in some ways, it’s a blessing. She could never have coped with a job and losing Chris at the same time.
She’s dreading going back and knows that, any day now, there’ll be an email from management with the phased return-to-work plan. Her team – once thirty strong – was cut down in lockdown and she knows that a lot of her colleagues will have had a tough time too, but she dreads their reunion. She already knows that she won’t be able to stand the questions… the pity, how at least one of them will almost certainly dredge up a competing story of someone they know who died of Covid too. That’s the thing that gets her the most. That her Chris, with his bright eyes, booming laugh and bear hugs, has been reduced to a grim statistic for other people to comment on and chew over.
Over by the other groyne, some teens scamper across the stones in bright bikinis, squealing. Everyone is supposed to be socially distancing, but somehow the government’s rules don’t seem so pressing here at the water’s edge. She used to get angry about joggers breathing and shoppers crowding the pavements with their masks on their chins, but after what happened to Chris, she doesn’t waste her energy any more. The world is already full of judgers and snitchers without her joining their ranks. What’s the point when the worst has already happened? Besides, it’s natural for people to interpret the rules and bend them to their own making. As Chris always used to say: people are like water… they’ll always find a way.
Dominica arrives next to Tor, who is ahead of her at the water’s edge; Helga is coming now too from where she’s slung her things on the pile of their stuff by the groyne and Dominica waves to her. As usual, Helga’s dressed in her baggy blue swimming costume and retro swimming cap with a chin strap. She doesn’t give a monkeys about her saggy wrinkly thighs being on show, unlike Dominica, who is body-conscious even now.
They make an odd tribe, Dominica thinks, feeling a surge of affection for these unlikely friends. There are other swimming gangs she could have joined. The women from her old yoga class swim regularly, but Dominica wanted to swim without their concerned expressions. She’d happened to arrive at the beach at the same time as Helga and Tor a few times, and, before she knew it, they’d formed a flockette of their own.
Tor is in her late thirties and is wearing a Santa hat in honour of the occasion, her bright-purple hair, some of which has turned into dreadlocks, poking out from beneath it. Dominica puts her arm around Tor’s skinny tattooed shoulder and gives her an affectionate squeeze.
‘Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu,’ Tor mutters, as the bubbly surf gobbles at her toes. ‘It’s so c … c … cold.’
‘You OK, though?’ Dominica checks. She knows how much Tor has suffered with her diagnosis. It’s not fair on the poor kid. Dominica is always so impressed with her positive attitude and fortitude.
‘Yep,’ Tor says, the green diamanté in her nose glinting. ‘I’m glad I’m here. Lotte threatened to come, but she’s hungover.’
Dominica can imagine it. She’s met Lotte, Tor’s Dutch girlfriend, a few times and she’s quite a force of nature. She gets the impression that Tor likes coming to the beach for a bit of peace and quiet.
‘Come on,’ Helga declares, in her funny accent – half Danish, half cockney – marching past them. ‘Stop dallying, you two. Get in.’
In a couple of strides, Helga’s surrendering gracefully to the water, bending her knees, her shoulders sinking. She sighs, as if the sea is a lover welcoming her with a caress. She flips onto her back, her face radiant. She might be the other side of seventy, but, in the water, Helga looks about seven. Her feet pop up as she floats, her arms out to her sides like a quirky otter. Dominica sees her focusing on the bandstand and knows she’s working out which way the current is running from the pull on her body in the water. She’s a stickler for water safety.
Dominica walks forward with Tor, concentrating on making sure she doesn’t hold her breath, but it’s a shock nonetheless, bringing her fuzzy brain into focus, like a camera lens. The beach, the land, every thought she had up until just moments ago, is in the past. There’s only now. She’s tried meditation, but this works much better for calming her scrambled thoughts. A plunge in the sea pushes her mental reset button like nothing else.