New book THE STORY OF A HEART to be published Sep 2024

Rachel’s next book, The Story of a Heart, tells the extraordinarily moving story of  how two families, united by one transplanted heart,  changed medical history in the UK.

In 2017, the lives of two nine-year-olds, Max Johnson and Keira Ball, became entwined around a single, shared heart when Keira was left brain dead in road traffic collision and her parents decided to donate her organs to others.

“I wanted to try and recreate as faithfully as possible the astonishing journey of Keira’s nine-year-old heart by interviewing all those who helped it resume its beat inside Max’s nine-year-old body – parents, siblings, surgeons, nurses, paramedics, bystanders, organ donation teams, psychologists and light aircraft pilots,” says Rachel. “The grace, courage and resilience of Max and Keira’s families have moved me beyond belief – and the science and history of how doctors successfully mastered the art of transplanting organs is enthralling.”

The Story of a Heart will be published in Sept 2024 by Little, Brown in the UK and Scribner in the US