‘I felt it would be better if I wrote my feelings down’ – author Romeo Bremmer
Award winning 11-year-old author Romeo Bremmer. - Credit: Juliet Bremmer
A Hackney schoolkid has co-written a book about how he coped when his mother was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2018.
Romeo Bremmer has just released his sixth book called Cancer, Mummy and Me. Written by Romeo and Juliet Bremmer and illustrated by Jason Lee. - Credit: Juliet Bremmer
Romeo Bremmer is already an award-winning author at 11 years old and Cancer, Mummy and Me is the sixth book he's written.
Romeo hopes other children with sick parents will be helped by his book.
He said: "I wrote my first book after my mum had heart surgery. It really helped me.
"I was very upset when my mum got sick again and I felt it would be better if I wrote my feelings down."
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His mother, Juliet, has worked in education for 22 years and recently retired as senior deputy head of Gladesmore School in Tottenham. She helped write the book and told the Gazette: "It's sometimes forgotten that it's not only the individual who is diagnosed with cancer that is affected, their families are too - especially children.
It's important they are given the opportunity to share their emotions as they watch their parent deal with a serious illness."
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The book chronicles his mother's illness from diagnosis to recovery and is filled with Romeo's observations and feelings, his mother's experiences and uplifting quotes by people like Martin Luther King and Winston Churchill.
"It's important they are given opportunity to share their emotions as they watch their parent deal with a serious illness. It helps them to process what they are experiencing, and helps them to cope better,"
Romeo's wrote his first book, Life Without My Mummy when he was seven. It is about dealing with his mother's triple heart bypass surgery. Ever since then he has published a book every year with titles such as Romeo's Guide to Architecture and Hey, Black Boy.
Romeo received a Tru Little Hero award in 2018 and was made Scribe of The Year in 2016. He hopes to be an architect when he grows up.
His mother has received several awards for her work in education and is now the chief consultant in their family run publishing company specialising in books written by young children.
