Authors/Illustrators A-Z
Author : Nicole Dryburgh
When Nicole Dryburgh was 11, she was diagnosed with a tumour on her spine and was treated by surgery and radiotherapy, successfully everyone thought. Then in December 2002, she became desperately ill, and had to be rushed by ambulance to King’s College Hospital. In January 2003, her mother was told that Nicole had only a few weeks to live.
Nicole has survived, in spite of all the physical difficulties she continues to have. She is blind, has almost no hearing and is confined mainly to a wheelchair – but she has attended college, learnt horse-riding and has competed at Hickstead, attends parties, does lots of charitable fund-raising, and has written her memoirs of her life from 13 to 18.
Since writing The Way I See It, Nicole has been shortlisted for numerous awards and amongst many she has won are: Britain's Most Inspiring Fundraiser; Round Table/BBC World Young Citizen; Young People's Choice for the Young Mind Book Award; a Diana award. Most recently, she has received the inaugural Anne Frank/Miep Gies award, given in recognition of people who perform the most courageous acts in the most frightening situations, and Nicole was described as 'an outstanding deaf, blind and disabled young woman who has defied the odds and turned life shattering events into forces for good.'
Nicole is a long-standing judge for the Philip Lawrence Award and is a fundraiser for the Teenage Cancer Trust - and continues to write.
