Sophie Kinsella, UK bestselling author of the Shopaholic series, revealed on social media on Wednesday: she was undergoing treatment For aggressive and often fatal brain tumors.
Kinsella was diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2022, but said she waited to make her diagnosis public so her children could “hear and process the news privately and adapt to the 'new normal.'” Ta. She is undergoing surgery and ongoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy at University College Hospital, London.
Kinsella, whose real name is Madeline Wickham, has written a string of hit novels, starting with 2000's “Confessions of a Shopaholic,'' about a New York City financial journalist with a severe shopping addiction. Almost 10 years later, a movie starring Isla Fisher and a sequel based on her original novel were released.
Since the huge success of the first novel, nine sequels have been released that follow the life of the main character, Rebecca Bloomwood, and Kinsella, 54, has become a loyal fan and has achieved a reigning position among romantic comedy writers.
Ms Kinsella said the response from readers to her latest novel, The Burnout, had “buoyed me up” during a difficult time in treatment. The novel, about a couple of tired office workers who meet at a run-down seaside resort in England, was published last year.
Glioblastoma is a highly aggressive brain tumor. There is no cure, and most patients do not live beyond 18 months to 2 years. “This is a very scary and devastating disease,” says Dr. Wajid Al Khorou, a neurosurgeon at the University of Michigan Health. This condition is relatively rare. The American Brain Tumor Society estimates that in 2023 more than 14,490 Americans are expected to receive a diagnosis of glioblastoma.
Doctors usually try to remove as much of the tumor as possible with surgery, and patients also receive chemotherapy and radiation therapy to slow the growth of the cancer. Tumors often recur.
Glioblastoma occurs most often between the ages of 50 and 70 and is more common in men than women, but doctors don't fully understand why, Dr. Al Hollow said. That's what it means. Doctors have not determined the cause of glioblastoma.
“It's completely random, it just happens out of nowhere,” says Dr. Vivian Taber, chief of neurosurgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Symptoms can progress rapidly and depend on where the tumor is located in the brain. People may experience headaches that become more severe over a short period of time, blurred vision, weakness in the arms or legs, difficulty speaking, memory loss, nausea or vomiting, and seizures. Sometimes, Dr. Al Hollow said, a person's personality can seem to change.
Dial Press, the publisher of Kinsella's longtime publisher Random House Books, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
