My dissertation explores the role of storytelling in the experience of illness as lived by young people, both as paediatric patients and carers, in the context of acquired illness (cancer) and congenital illness (congenital heart disease). It puts three Children’s and Young Adult novels in dialogue with four patients’ interviews to analyse how storytelling supports and empowers young people experiencing life-threatening illness. The fictions are centred on the theme of acquired illness, specifically cancer, and they are subdivided into two blocks, to explore two opposite perspectives. On the one hand, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (2011) represents young carers who witness their respective mothers suffering and dying from cancer. On the other one, Before I Die by Jenny Downham (2007) and Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls (2008) represent paediatric oncological patients telling their stories of illness. Through these works of fiction, I introduce my idea of storytelling healer, a character that learns to process grief through storytelling and can also teach this skill to others. In Chapter 3, I apply the concept of the storytelling healer to four interviews with young patients with congenital heart disease with the help of my self-designed logic model of storytelling prompted by objects, in this case three-dimensional printed heart models. My analysis of these interviews demonstrates that storytelling can be a powerful tool to empower patients’ (and carers’) coping with life-threatening illness.
Storytelling Healers: The Narrativisation of Cancer and Congenital Heart Disease
Silvestrin, A. (Author). 30 Sept 2025
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)