At the age of 39, unhappily married, unfulfilled and seven stone overweight Janice Day was diagnosed with breast cancer and recommended for a full mastectomy.

In Getting It Off My Chest, she recounts in her own quirky, hilarious, style, how the gruelling experience of illness, of breast surgery and reconstruction, prompted her to examine what was wrong with her life and how to make it better. Along the way, she rejects the near-unanimous recommendations of her doctors to undergo chemotherapy (ten years on, the cancer has not returned), separates from her husband, comes to terms with her unhappy childhood, loses seven stone and launches a successful career as a cabaret singer, stand-up comedian and writer.

The result is a moving and inspiring memoir that, against all odds, remains hysterically funny.