The best teenage cancer book

This teenage cancer book tells a moving story about a young girl who refuses to give up in the fight against cancer. The press proclaimed the book “best teenage cancer book”.

From one day to the next, sixteen-year-old Mette goes from being a cheerful, active teenager to having Ewing’s sarcoma, the same rare type of cancer that took Ted Kennedy, Jr.’s leg. As Mette’s friends jubilantly make their way through high school, she struggles with chemo, nausea, and the most terrible thing she can imagine: being bald. To avoid looking like someone who is ill, she does everything possible: buys a wig, attends class, tries with all her might to live a normal teenage life.

Willpower Girl — A Teenager’s Trek Through Cancer is a moving story about a young girl with teenage cancer. Mette learns how to turn adversity into strength, and daring to believe in the future once again, she comes out the other side to rediscover fulfillment and a rich life.

Born in 1985, Mette is a successful author and speaker based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She lives with an internal prosthesis in her leg and continues to go for regular checkups.

Want to know if this teenage cancer book is for you?

“If you really want to understand why the field of adolescent and young adult cancer needs to be a specialty in its own right, then this beautifully written account of a young girl’s fight for life is the book for you. Open, sincere and packed with insight into the emotional challenges a cancer diagnosis has on this teenage girls psyche, we are transported from her diagnosis, through the rigors of treatment and surgery to a successful but life adjusted survival pathway. What sets this book apart though is the quality of the writing and the depth with which we enter Mette’s world to experience the challenges of a young person, old enough to appreciate the burden of her illness on the people who love her and yet hardly mature enough to tackle the complexity of that responsibility. This book has renewed my determination to shine a light on the needs of this special group and to focus care, treatment, support and research on their unique needs.”

Simon Davies, CEO Teen Cancer America

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Readers Say:

“Willpower Girl is an incredible life-affirming story. It is the kind of story where you think ‘Wow,’ or ‘How incredible!’ over and over again. I loved reading Mette’s book.”
Isabella Axkjær, 14 years old

“Excellent reading. Others in a similar situation will gain a great deal of knowledge and compassion from reading this book.”
Margit Mikkelsen, 72 years old

“A great book that demands reading in a single sitting! I read it with a lump in my throat, hope in my body, tears streaming and a silly grin. It is a serious subject, but Mette manages to write with a balance of seriousness, humor and hope.”
Stella Borne Mikkelsen, 47 years old.

“I am 100% sure that Willpower Girl can help scores of young people who are living with a disease; Mette is all about willpower and genuine proof that we shouldn’t give in, even when everything seems dark and sad.”
Rebecca Johansen, 15 years old

“A great book! My sister is sick and after reading Willpower Girl, I had a better sense of what she is going through. I highly recommend that relatives of someone who has a disease read it — whether the disease is cancer or something else.”
Fillip Poulsen, 36 years old

The Press Say:

“A great and powerful book about young people with cancer.”
Politiken

“Profound and captivating. You know what it’s like to be her.”
Youth Culture Denmark

“An exuberant and easily readable narrative. Mette is a capable girl whose abundant energy gives hope and courage to others. May it be read by many.”
Primary School, a magazine for Danish teachers

“Willpower Girl’s…distinction is its lack of sentimentality along with its quick, clear, and frequently humorous way of looking at the world when you don’t know how much time you have left.”
Bogvagten.dk

Mette 16 years old.

Mette today.

The best teenage cancer book

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