LoveReading Says
Heart-rending, captivating and, ultimately, suffused in the promise of hope, With and Without You sees Kelsey Parker share her experience of losing her husband Tom, lead singer of The Wanted, and her first year as a widow.
Relating details of Tom’s diagnosis with an inoperable brain tumour in 2021, through the rollercoaster of treatments and alternative therapies that gave him more time with Kelsey and their young children, to his untimely death and all those painful firsts without him, it’s an acutely intimate account of grief, loss, love and finding new light.
Certain to move readers who appreciate honest autobiographies that lay bare life’s most painful trials, it also offers a helping hand to those who’ve experienced comparable loss, and reveals how it is possible to “keep going. One foot in front of the other.”
Joanne Owen
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Kelsey Parker: With And Without You Synopsis
“They say the first year is the hardest.”
Kelsey Parker’s world was turned upside down in the summer of 2020 when her husband Tom, singer in boyband The Wanted, was cruelly diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.
Heavily pregnant with their second child and coping with her own heartache at losing her partner of 13 years, Kelsey remained a tower of strength and positivity for Tom during his darkest days. When traditional treatments stopped working, she spent hours researching alternative therapies to give her husband extra time with his young children Aurelia and Bodhi.
Hope came late in 2021 when Tom’s tumour became stable, but sadly his condition quickly deteriorated and on March 30, 2022, aged just 33, he died surrounded by his loyal wife, family and friends.
With And Without You is her moving, deeply personal story of the first 12 months since Tom’s tragic passing. An intimate diary of how she coped with a year of unwanted firsts – first birthdays, first Christmas, first Valentine’s Day – all without the love of her life. It is the story of how she rebuilt her life, and bravely found a way to face the future. Since Tom’s death, Kelsey has been an inspiration to many and a rock to the couple’s children. She has sought to raise awareness of glioblastoma and has bravely campaigned for vital funds for more research into the disease. She has also found spirituality – following Tom’s long held belief there is something greater than just one life.
With And Without You is not only a story of coping with unimaginable heartbreak and grief, but how your love for someone you’ve lost can be turned into something positive and bring hope and light into your life as you carry on your journey without them.
About This Edition
About Kelsey Parker
Kelsey Parker is a mum, business owner, and widow of The Wanted singer Tom Parker who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour in 2020 and tragically died two years later. Since her partner’s death, Parker has been working to raise awareness for brain cancer research by organising charity events. Parker recently led a six-part documentary on ITVBe ‘Kelsey Parker: Life After Tom’.
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