Having survived a life-threatening battle with cancer at a young age, a local musician has just released his life story.

’Not Every Story Is Tragic: A memoir by Alex Cowley’ was released last week by Wibble Publishing.

The book is an unflinching account of Alex’s battle with leukaemia during his late teens and early 20s and his subsequent struggles with mental health issues in his later years.

Now aged 31, Alex feels he is able to share his experiences and also tell how he came through them and was able to continue to play and enjoy music throughout.

Having once been a keen and promising footballer and sportsman, Alex developed a love of music and soon became an accomplished guitarist and singer songwriter, playing with popular bands such as Maldune and Three Million.

Many may remember watching either band when Alex was playing with them while showing the effects of his battle and the chemotherapy treatment he underwent.

In the book, he talks about his favourite musicians and what it was about them that inspired him to keep going and playing music, to retain a love of life and to get through the worst of days.

Alex also talks about the years of combatting severe depression and his own personal demons and explains how, through his own courage and the support of family, friends and support services, such as Manx Cancer Help,, he was able to overcome these conditions and feel that he came out the other side as a better man for them.

’I don’t want this to be read as a tragic story of some one suffering from a disease,’ said Alex.

’It is my life story. I start off by taking about growing up and playing football in Ramsey, before getting into playing music and starting my first band.

’But essentially it is about going through a bad patch and coming out the other side. Although I guess it is a pretty big bad patch.

’The message of the book is about following your dreams. ’We grow up wanting to be astronauts, footballers and musicians, but some where along the way we get of track and end up in a nine-to-five job we hate.

’It’s about making sure you stay on track and finding the thing you truly love to do, and dedicating your life to that thing.

’For me, that is writing and music. It gets me up in the morning, makes my heart tick and makes life worth living. Without that life is dull and boring. You need to find what makes you tick and make that your lives work.’

’Not Every Story Is Tragic’ is available as a kindle-edition from Amazon and as a limited-edition paperback, priced £9, available by emailing [email protected]

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers