Jessica's outlook has been shaped by a life that was anything but conventional. One of seven children, she grew up with real hardship, moving homes and schools often and going through many periods of homelessness. At sixteen she won a place at art college, training in fashion design and pattern cutting, then moved to London to work in couture and modelling.

At twenty-two, a severe arthritic condition left her almost completely incapacitated. Unhappy with her progress under conventional treatment, she tried a dietary approach and made a gradual but full recovery over the following year.

She went on to train as a martial arts instructor and build a successful business. Then a chance meeting with renowned American hypnotherapist Gil Boyne led to a scholarship to train in clinical hypnotherapy in the United States.

More serious health challenges followed, including pneumonia, temporary loss of sight in one eye and a life-threatening episode involving uterine fibroids, and each time she had to rebuild both her health and her working life. Rather than letting these experiences set her limits, they deepened her interest in human resilience, the mind-body relationship and our capacity to change.

Jessica is careful to separate her own experience from any treatment recommendation. She encourages informed, individual decision-making, with people exploring the medical and integrated options that suit them and working alongside the healthcare professionals they choose.

Alongside The Topic of Cancer, she's a contributing author to A Cancer Revolution and contributed to Oncoplastic Breast Surgery - A Practical Guide. She's particularly interested in how the doctor-patient relationship affects health outcomes, and the role psychological resilience plays in coping with illness.

Her work rests on the idea that meaningful change takes more than positive thinking. It needs self-awareness, personal responsibility, mental discipline and a willingness to challenge the beliefs that no longer serve us, and then handing it over to a power greater than ourselves.

“It's not the situation we are faced with that defines us, but who we choose to be in relation to it.”

Find out more at jessicarichards.co.uk and thetopicofcancer.co.uk.