When Ruth Picardie died from complications following the misdiagnosis of breast cancer in September 1997, leaving a young husband and two-year-old twins, thousands mourned who'd never met her. Ruth's column in The Observer recorded with scalding honesty the progress of her illness and her feelings about living with terminal cancer. BEFORE I SAY GOODBYE brings together these pieces, Ruth's e-mail correspondence with friends, selected letters from readers, and accounts of Ruth's last days by her sister, Justine, and husband Matt.