One Year by Susan Bennett

One Year by Susan Bennett

‘But we can’t possibly pack up our lives and just run away in a van for a whole year. Can we?’

Susan Bennett and her husband Chris are living normal, busy lives until their mid-thirties when a shock diagnosis of multiple sclerosis is delivered to both of them – in the same week, in the same hospital. This is one in a series of final straws that nudges them to follow their dream, simplify their lives, and take to the road for a year in their trusty camper van, Hans.

One Year charts their journey around western Europe and Scandinavia. Engine breakdowns, Spanish flu, French doctors and many hours spent getting lost – freedom does not come without its challenges. But slowly the fog of bereavement and burnout begins to lift as they determine to carry on regardless; the unknown road reveals unexpected life lessons such as how to recover a sense of awe and look up at big skies, how to stop and breathe, and how to find courage to live life to the beat of your own drum. One Year is a life-affirming true story of stopping in order to start again and an inspirational memoir about rediscovering a capacity for joy and hope in the most difficult of circumstances.

Susan Bennett is a writer based in Co. Antrim. She has been longlisted for the Cambridge Short Story Prize and shortlisted for the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio Ulster’s Thought for the Day.