Discussing Cloud Nine with Young Adults with cancer

Posted on 30 April 2025

In honour of Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Awareness Month this April, we spoke with members of the TYA Next Chapter Book Club, delivered by Teenage Cancer Trust Youth Support Coordinators, who had the opportunity to read Sue H. Cunningham’s book Cloud Nine before its publication, and found out why realistic depictions of young people with cancer are so important to the community.

Youth Support Coordinator Cathy Cook tells us more:

“My name is Cathy and I am a Teenage Cancer Trust Youth Support Coordinator based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham. I support young people aged between 16-24 following a cancer diagnosis from across the West Midlands, and part of my role is to offer opportunities for peer support. Since the pandemic, we have been offering a regular Virtual Book Club for young people from the region and wider to get involved in and share their love of reading a good conversation. During this time, our Book Club, now named TYA Next Chapter, has engaged with over 50 young people and now covers the West Midlands, Scotland, Newcastle and South Thames.

“Sue had kindly joined us as a guest when we read her previous book Totally Deceased a year ago, and she mentioned that she was writing a book where a character had a cancer diagnosis, and wondered if we might have any young people that would be interested in reading it before it went to print, as a sense check. There was only a small window of time to do this before and final changes had to be made, but with such keen readers as part of the Book Club, we had a couple that speed read the book in a matter of days, and were able to offer some amazingly constructive feedback to the character of Tom from their lived experiences.”

Keep reading to see what the Book Club members thought of Cloud Nine!

What was it like being asked to be involved in reading a book before its publication?

Young Person 1: Being asked to read a book ahead of it being published was so exciting. It was so kind of Sue to ask for input from our point of view as patients, it shows how much she cares about the accuracy of her work and how it impacts young cancer patients.

Young Person 2: Being asked to be involved in the process of Cloud Nine was great; it demonstrated that the author and publisher cared about sensitivity and accuracy to real cancer stories and were open to learning from our experiences.

How would you describe Cloud Nine in a sentence?

YP1: A magically romantic comedy that will be sure to make you laugh and perhaps shed a tear or two.

YP2:Cloud Nine is an upbeat yet incredibly moving exploration of first love in a very interesting and quirky setting.

Were there any scenes or characters in Cloud Nine that particularly resonated with you?

YP1: Evvy, her sheer determination and loving heart.

YP2: The scene in which Evvy first realizes Tom has cancer is very powerful and brings quite a switch of mood to the whole story.

What are your thoughts on the representation of teens with cancer in YA?

YP1: I’m unsure, I think Sue did a wonderful job.

YP2: I think often they suffer from a lack of nuance which is why Cloud Nine is such an important book.

What would you like to see more of in representations of teens with cancer in YA?

YP1: I think it just needs to be written about more… young people get cancer too and that is far too often forgotten about. It’s not just children and adults that suffer.

YP2: More vulnerability – getting cancer is a huge blow and characters should be allowed to grieve, to feel sad and not always ‘put on a brave face’. Young people reading need to know it’s ok to not be ok at the news.

Is there anything you’d like people to know about having cancer as a teen?

YP1: Having cancer as a young adult is so challenging, your whole life has to change at a time that you’re still learning and growing as an individual. Your entire world changes in a matter of seconds and there’s nothing you can do other than put your life in the hands of someone you’ve only met for a matter of minutes. Imagine trusting a stranger with your life… that is what cancer patients do from their diagnosis throughout their treatment and beyond. Having cancer is as much about mental health as it is physical health. Your physical body battles and suffers the side effects of treatment. Your mind has to deal with the trauma you’ve experienced throughout your diagnosis, treatment and beyond for the rest of your life. You have to build an entire new world because you’re not the person you were before.

YP2: I think it’s just important to acknowledge young people get cancer and it has a huge impact on our lives. We need to remember we’re not immune just because of age; it can happen to anyone.

Cloud Nine is out now.