Bestselling author Sophie Kinsella, who penned the popular Shopaholic book series, announced on Wednesday that she has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Kinsella posted the announcement to X, saying, “I’ve wanted for a long time to share with you a health update and I’ve been waiting for the strength to do so.”
The author wrote that she had been diagnosed with glioblastoma at the end of 2022, but had been waiting to share the news until her family could adjust to their “new normal.”
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Glioblastoma is a type of glioma, which is a fast-growing group of cells that form in the brain or spinal cord. The symptoms include headaches, nausea, vomiting, and seizures, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Kinsella has been undergoing treatment at University College Hospital in London, including surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, which is still ongoing, she wrote. According to the Glioblastoma Foundation, the life expectancy for those who undergo treatment is 12 to 15 months.
“At the moment all is stable and I am feeling generally very well, though I get very tired and my memory is even worse than it was before,” she wrote.
Kinsella thanked her family and close friends, as well as her readers for their support. “The wonderful response to The Burnout has really buoyed me up,” she wrote, referencing her most recent work which was published in October 2023.
“It can feel very lonely and scary to have a tough diagnosis, and the support and care of those around you means more than words can say,” she wrote.
Kinsella, a mother of five, has written 35 romantic comedy novels in over two decades. In 2021, she had sold over 45 million copies of her books, (at the time she’d only published 29 novels). Two of her books in the Shopaholic series were made into the 2009 film Confessions of a Shopaholic.
