Cathy Koning

I like to re-invent myself and have had a varied work life. I briefly worked as a secondary school teacher after graduating with an arts degree from Latrobe University in Melbourne Australia. As a theatre production photographer I toured Europe with Nigel Triffitt's Momma's Little Horror Show and captured many performances at Melbourne’s Last Laugh Theatre Restaurant. After a stint as a cinema publicist I founded a successful gardening business and then ran a Sustainable Communities Program for two rural shires.
Everything changed in 2012 with a leukaemia diagnosis. During the long recovery I turned my hand to writing, and Dainty Diva, the biography of my husband’s great aunt, Sydney soprano and vaudeville artist Dorothy Rudder, was the outcome. This book is lavishly illustrated with images from her archive and can be read for free on my website https://cathykoningwriter.com
I recently self-published my second book LIFE BLOOD: Lessons from one woman who survived serious illness against the odds, the story of my ten-year leukaemia journey. I take the reader along with me from a patient’s point of view, reflecting on a daunting medical situation with humour, a bit of drama, education and philosophical meandering, and maybe a few tears too.

LIFE BLOOD is for family and friends supporting a loved one, medical practitioners, patients themselves, and anyone interested in reading about real-life survival stories.
Almost everyone knows someone facing a serious illness such as cancer, or possibly has gone through it themselves. I chronicle my experience for readers seeking a better understanding of what it’s like to be a patient trying to survive, and even flourish, against the odds. I want to stimulate discussion about how we cope when confronted by illness and emphasise that everyone has to deal with it in their own way.
I also acknowledge the marvellous work of the staff at our Australian public hospitals, in particular my mothership, Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital, and how fortunate our community is in Medicare. And to recognise the invaluable support of my family and friends who came on the expedition with me. They had their challenges too. It takes a village, or in my case, a metropolis.
I am currently researching my next book about a notorious American con artist whom Dorothy Rudder briefly crossed paths with in Borneo just after WW1.