John Walker Pattison

John Walker Pattison was born in the wonderful seaside town of South Shields 65 years ago. He is a long-suffering, yet dedicated Newcastle United supporter; however, there is little doubt that the crucial hinge in John's life, is his beautiful wife, June. “Nothing is more important than family,” says John. He recently retired from his post as a senior clinical nurse specialist and Macmillan nurse in haematology at his local hospital, a place that established his cancer diagnosis almost 50 years ago; at that time his parents were told that he would not survive, yet here he is today, humbled to be one of the longest living cancer survivors in the UK today. He has written dozens of articles for national and international nursing and medical press. John has presented lectures the length and breadth of the country on many aspects of haematology and cancer management. He is honoured to have won numerous awards both locally and nationally for his work in haematology. Now his focus is children's fiction. Pattison has recently completed his memoirs, ‘Me, and My Shadow – memoirs of a cancer survivor' which will be published in August 2022. Due to the pandemic and his chronic illnesses as a consequence of the salubrious chemotherapy and radiotherapy he received decades earlier he decided to put pen to paper and document the elasticated stories he has been telling his grandchildren for many years. His first children's book, ‘Strange Trips and Weird Adventures' is the first in a series of adventures of Daniel and Papa; available to a worldwide audience and will be followed by ‘Blenkinsop Blabbermouth and the Ghost of Broderick McCaffery,' then, ‘The Fastest Water Pistol in Splodge City.' His fourth and fifth titles, ‘The Huckleberry Kingdom,' and ‘Marcel the Mystic Mouse from Marseille' are both in progress. He enjoys the solitude and escapism of fly fishing and photographing Native Americans. In 2018 he spent a week on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, as a guest of the Lakota Sioux Nation.