Andy Kahle turned her blog - written to keep her family up to date while she was undergoing cancer treatment - into her new book, Don’t Wait for the Green Light . Instead of being your standard Breast Cancer survival story, this book is a collection of emotional and often humorous situations that Andy found herself in while she put her motor racing on hold to fight a disease that affects 1 in 8 women.

Everyone needs something to inspire them to keep fighting, and mine was the knowledge that I would get back in my race car.

While superstition says that back luck comes in 3’s, Andy didn’t allow this to sway her need to race down the quarter mile in Australia’s first compact car - the Holden Torana. First she blew up the transmission the day before she was supposed to get her racing licence, then her husband - Mick - slipped in the shower and impaled himself on the tap, that very same evening. And if you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop … just as the racing season was coming to a close, and hubby was on the mend, Andy was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer, forcing her dream on hold.

There is a saying in drag racing, that if you wait until you see the green light before you leave the start line, you will miss out. So is the case in real life. Sometimes it’s better to put your foot flat to the floor and accelerate to where you want to be. While Andy’s book Don’t Wait for the Green Light starts with the uncertainty of a life changing diagnosis, Andy takes this as an opportunity to look at everything with her trademark wry humour. Situations such as the mood lighting and 70s style attire while getting a mammogram, or the nervous foot jiggling, plastic chair wobbling of her husband while she read outdated magazines in the doctors waiting room, Andy has managed to maintain the gravity of her journey while still demonstrating the importance of enjoying every moment and focussing on her ultimate goal of racing again.