Alice’s Cancer

So I’ve read all the Alice books and thought they were all incredible!! They always found a way to touch my heart in the end and want to flip back to the first page, especially the last one. The scariest part in the last book was 1.) When Patrick was tempted by the other woman and I thought he would cheat (Thank you for not letting that happen!) and when Alice got breast cancer. Did you ever have breast cancer? When and how did you decide you wanted Alice getting cancer in the plot? and why?

No, thankfully, I’ve never had any cancer, but it is so common that I felt it would be an unnatural life if Alice didn’t face some kind of physical problem.   As we grow older, it would be very unusual if people got by without something to affect their health–diabetes,   spinal problems, high blood pressure,  broken bones, etc.  and I wanted to see how Alice and Patrick dealt with it.