Claire's Brain Tumour Recovery Journal - A Review

I had the opportunity to review an electronic version of Claire Bullimore’s Brain Tumour Recovery Journal for the purpose of writing this review.


I came into contact with Claire after my own Meningioma brain tumour diagnosis in 2008. Our journeys were also similar in that we, unknowingly, were diagnosed in the same year. 

Once I had realised, I would need some longer-term support I accessed Claire’s wonderful Aunty M Brain Tumours network through Facebook and Twitter. I also took part in a radio interview with Claire and have since contributed to her blog as a guest writer. As readers will probably know I started my own blog in 2013 as part of my journey of recovery. I continue to find writing an incredibly cathartic therapy.

When Claire asked members of her recently established Facebook group Brain Tumours Bloggers United to review her journal I jumped at the chance:


The well designed journal which is 52 pages long, is an aide memoir in diary format and a mindful prompt for people recovering from or living with a brain tumour.


The Journal costs £10.99 and is available from Amazon 

At the start two pages are dedicated to listing Important Things To Remember including medication, appointments and doctor and therapists details. This provides the opportunity to keep essential information in one place, a go to reminder.


I particularly like the next section asking the Journal keeper to list Things that have Frightened Me on My Journey. After a lot of counselling therapy, I now understand the value of writing feelings down, getting them out of my head, and can see that this simple task would help so many. I also like the balance of positivity on the page where Claire asks the journal keeper to document Things I Have Overcome And Am Proud of Myself For.


An important list is then provided to prompt self-help and how to access ongoing support. The subsequent page is a further visual aid memoir to leaving the house. Since my brain tumour I struggle with my memory and I can see myself printing or scanning this page from a hard copy and pasting it on my front and back doors. 


The Journal then provides space for a monthly planner and I recognise how using it to diarise the Things I Want To Achieve Each Month – which is something I rarely plan, would be an incredibly positive thing to do. Seven pages follow with hourly slots from 7am to 10pm providing space to plan or record events, feelings and thoughts.

The rest of the Journal is four repeats of the previous 9 pages – providing space for a months planning.  


Claire knows only too well that one of the many issues with recovery is that of memory challenges. Therefore, the journal is a dual tool which many will find useful to use. The Journal could be used as a paper diary to record appointments, social events etc, a bit like a Filofax whilst providing direction for people at any stage of a brain tumour journey. 

A Mindfulness Journal
However, I see a huge benefit in using this journal as a means to focus on emotional and mental health. I imagine that few of us regularly write down how we are feeling, or what we want to achieve. The prompts Claire provides suggest this was in her mind when she wrote it. Indeed on her website she suggests it can be used for strategy building; somewhere to write down your thoughts and feelings, a recognised mindfulness exercise to relieve stress and anxiety. By writing things down, the user would provide themselves with information and memories which they can subsequently reflect upon as they progress on their journey.


The only criticism I have is that with only a months worth of pages, it is not clear if Claire would suggest readers copy the pages for their own use on a longer-term basis or whether it is only meant to be used for a short period of time. I would also suggest that the journal would benefit from direction in its use from Claire as is included on her website. 

Claire has also been modest in the journal as she has not included information or links to her book A Brain Tumours Travel Tale, support network sites and blog which I feel would help people who have come across the Journal but know little about Claire.


I applaud Claire for writing this Journal, which, had it been around at the start of my brain tumour journey, would have helped with my focus during the early stages of my recovery.