Kate Carr

Real Cancer, real story, real nasty. She had cancer, went into remission and it came back, the Cancer Counselling Trust's website notes that she died the day before it was published!

I did not die there, but I came Close,
And there was a moment,
perhaps there were several moments,
when I tasted death, when I saw myself dead.
There is no cure for such an encounter.
Once it happens, it goes on happening;
you live with it for the rest of your life.

Paul Auster, The Locked Room, from the book.