When faced with a cancer diagnosis, navigating the maze of emotions and decisions can be overwhelming. In this inspiring and deeply personal memoir, Michael Handford – a professor of intercultural communication – shares his experience of a stage-4 throat cancer diagnosis at the age of 42 while living and working in Japan and the UK. Weaving together his professional insights and personal experiences, and through vivid storytelling, Handford examines how communication – whether with doctors, loved ones, or oneself – can shape the cancer experience. He shows that creating meaning and agency in the face of illness can provide a sense of control amidst the chaos. This book is not just about surviving cancer but about reframing it as part of a quest for connection, resilience, and understanding. Poignant, and at times brutally funny, Lump in My Throat offers guidance, hope, and tools to navigate the toughest of times with dignity and strength.

‘Like the earthquake that produced the catastrophe at Fukushima, a dire cancer diagnosis produced a series of powerful aftershocks in Michael Handford’s life. Lump in My Throat proves that an intercultural lens can help patients negotiate and survive the foreign terrain of treatment with a modicum of agency.’

Susan Gubar - author of Memoir of a Debulked Woman and Reading and Writing Cancer

‘Lump in My Throat is a rare and deeply human book. With honesty and grace, Michael Handford draws on his expertise in communication and culture to reflect on facing stage 4 cancer in the shadow of Fukushima. More than a memoir, it is a moving exploration of how language and connection help us endure, make meaning, and hold on to one another in the hardest times. Wise and compassionate, this book shows how communication can sustain life itself.’

James Paul Gee - author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy

‘Michael Handford’s story of his life before, during, and after cancer masterfully combines a deeply personal perspective with scholarly questioning and explanation. It is simultaneously tragic and funny, assertive and self-deprecating, unsettling and comforting. As a fellow linguist, I am proud that someone from my academic tribe has made such a remarkable contribution to the long-standing tradition of cancer memoirs.’

Elena Semino - lead author of Metaphor, Cancer and the End of Life

‘Autobiography blends beautifully with theory in this wonderful book, which illuminates the unexpected impact of cancer upon communication – with yourself, your medical team, and your loved ones. I can’t recommend this enough to anyone with an interest in health and illness, culture, or communication. For someone with their own diagnosis to navigate, Lump in My Throat offers a unique perspective and some useful tools to help think about things a little differently.’

Hannah O'Mahoney - Insight and Engagement Lead at Tenovus Cancer Care

‘This personal memoir of a life-changing event also succeeds in taking us to the everyday of the intercultural and its associated politics. The carefully crafted storytelling is a rare example of a university academic making his specialist knowledge accessible to everyone. Set in Japan, but relevant to how we all need to make sense of others and ourselves.’

Adrian Halliday - author of Intercultural Communication & Ideology

‘In Lump in My Throat, Michael Handford artfully blends emotional content with a fluid, reflective style, simultaneously accomplishing a populist appeal and informing academic scholarship in the study of illness narratives. Uniquely, the lump is given a voice, an agency, and a narrator status, emerging as an ‘I’ not ‘it’ – the ‘communicative other’ who speaks directly to the author, and indirectly to the reader.’

Srikant Kumar Sarangi - Editor-in-Chief, Communication & Medicine