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Bertha Mukodzani with daughters Laurentia Tigere and Charity
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Sharing views from Zimbabwe homeland

By Natalie Slater
November 16, 2010

An inspirational nurse from Royal Berkshire Hospital has put pen to paper to detail her life from Zimbabwe to Reading.

Bertha Mukodzani, who lives in Lower Elmstone Drive in Tilehurst, moved to England 10 years ago following the death of her first husband with whom she had a young daughter, now 16.

The 36-year-old has remarried and now also has a five-year-old daughter and works as a recovery nurse at the hospital. She has just had her first book published, called A Life Steered.

The book describes her life growing up in Zimbabwe with an alcoholic father and the economic climate that led her to leave a career in teaching to come to England to be a nurse.

She said: “It is written in the third person but it is a biography. It details the experiences and the difficulties I went through to the point when I moved to England.

“It got to the point where it was tragedy upon tragedy in my life and that is depicted in the book. I have always had things bottled up inside and I found writing this book quite therapeutic.

“It has taken a lot of time to do.

“At points I was working all day and writing into the early hours but I feel very satisfied now it is done and I have already started my second book that will be made up of children’s stories. After that starts from the point when I left Zimbabwe.”

The book is on sale now and Mrs Mukodzani said she has had a very positive reaction so far.

She said: “It’s mostly people from work I know who have read it so far but they have all given me very positive feedback.

“To have the book published feels very, very good. It is something I always wanted to do and I feel very proud now that it is done.

“I hope people will read it with interest and enjoyment and also to learn something about my home country in it.”

She added: “I also want to thank my colleagues and everyone else for putting up with me, believing in me and spurring me on during all those months of writing the book.”

To buy a copy of the book, published by AuthorHouse, visit www.amazon.com.

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