One of the biggest medical scandals of our time is the over-prescription of strong pain relief. This heart-rending memoir lifts the lid on the issue, showing the price one woman paid and her fight to recover.

'I used to think a drug addict was someone who lived on the far edges of society. Wild-eyed, shaven-headed and living in a filthy squat. That was until I become one.'

Cathryn Kemp was a successful travel journalist who fell ill with a life-threatening illness. After four years of painful operations and misdiagnoses she was discharged from hospital with a repeat prescription for fentanyl, a painkiller one hundred times stronger than heroin. Within two years she was taking more than ten times the NHS maximum dosage, all on prescription.

Painkiller Addict is a story of our times, as each year more and more prescriptions are written for strong painkillers or tranquillisers. In this extraordinarily poignant, vivid and honest memoir, Cathryn describes her horrifying descent into addiction and her fight for freedom from the medication which saved her life -- then almost destroyed it. It is a love story, a horror story and one of the bravest survival stories you will ever read.

Frankly written, Kemp's courageous memior will help those dealing with an addict, or with addiction itself.