Issue link: http://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/85232
010: pinkfeature Tales Helen's WHEN MOST PEOPLE EXPERIENCE A LIFE-CHANGING EVENT, REPRESSING FEELINGS OF SORROW IS OFTEN THE ONLY WAY TO COPE, BUT FOR INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR HELEN BROWN, THOSE STORIES OF MOURNING HAVE BEEN HER KEY TO SUCCESS. HELEN SHARES WITH PINK THE DRAMATIC HIGHS AND LOWS HER LIFE HAS REVOLVED AROUND AND WHY HER TALES HAVE BEEN SO HELPFUL TO OTHERS. WORDS BY: NAKITA ARDERN What I would have given to have flown to Melbourne and looked into the eyes of the woman who has seen so much in her 58 years on this earth. From one writer to another, I truly appreciate the level of dedication Helen Brown has given her trade. While I am protected by the safety of other's stories, this woman has bared all over decades of weekly newspaper columns, theatre performances and most recently, her internationally acclaimed best-selling books that have divulged every facet and feeling of the novelist's rollercoaster life. When Pink approached Helen to be our 2012 cover girl, I prepared myself for the onslaught of waterworks I predicted would come as I interviewed my superior from across the ditch. I can guarantee I'm not the only soul, cat lover or not, that has shed tears over her books, Cleo (the story of how a small black cat helped heal a family after the death of her son, Sam) and its sequel After Cleo: Came Jonah which tells of the highs and lows of mother-daughter relationships, the impact of a breast cancer diagnosis and how a kooky cat called Jonah helped mend a broken heart. However my emotions were delightfully repressed as I was greeted by the voice of a calm, cheerful woman who was more interested in learning about me and my story than retelling her life's struggles and the disease that nearly took her life. "I'm often asked how I can bear to expose my intimate life," Helen explains from her Prahran home. "Whereas I think [all of our] lives are very similar. We don't have much to hide from one another and it's better to express things than to try and be brave. "Women," Helen continues, "particularly those that battle breast cancer, are guilty of not wanting to upset family and husbands more than they should by talking about what is happening. Breast cancer is a very curable disease and most women have every reason to be optimistic. We forget that the real miracle is that we're alive at all. "You lose fear when something like this happens to you. You realise that this is the worst thing that could possibly happen to me, so what do I do now?" Helen's answer to her self-generated question… "You live. And you tell people that you love them. And you let go of things that made you angry and bitter in the past and appreciate every day". The New Plymouth born mother-of-four recently celebrated (for lack of a better word) her fourth annual check-up with a cancer clear result. She tells of the 'niggling feeling' four years ago that prompted her to shirk the free government sponsored programme for an earlier breast clinic visit. She notes how later her surgeon commended her, as had she left it any longer the cancer would have been 'absolutely everywhere'. "I'll be forever grateful for following my gut instinct to keep that regular check-up and not delaying it. That would be my one heartfelt piece of advice I would offer to anyone." Helen recalls the 'incompetence' of the nurse who, after several failed attempts secured the mammogram image that would reveal a large growth, 6cm in diameter across her right breast. "Unless you're wired for a photographic recall, it's almost impossible to remember what you were wearing on a certain day," writes Helen in her second memoir, After Cleo: Came Jonah. "Some days are so devastating, however, the brain stores away irrelevant details. I recall, for instance, exactly what I was wearing the afternoon