Women's Prize for Non-Fiction Longlist 2026 | To Exist As I Am: A Doctor's Notes on Recovery and Radical Acceptance - Grace Spence Green

At the age of twenty-two, Grace Spence Green's spine was broken and her life changed course. One day, she was in hospital supporting patients, the next she was one herself. Over the years that followed, words like healing and recovery took on new meanings.

Some emotions, like sadness and self-pity, dimmed. Others were heightened, and Grace learned to embrace them all: anger at a world ill-equipped to accommodate her new body; passion to demand change; and joy found in community, nature and wild swimming. Through her powerful story, Grace shows how we can come back to ourselves after trauma and fight for change while joyously embracing life exactly as we are.