There are days when everything feels too heavy. When you’re not sure how much longer you can keep going. If you’ve walked the cancer journey—whether as someone living with cancer, a carer, or someone who’s lost someone—you know those days intimately.
The Blue Day Book, written by Australian author Bradley Trevor Greive, has helped millions of people navigate exactly those feelings. And we think it deserves a place in your self-care toolkit.
A Book Born From Real Struggle
What makes The Blue Day Book different isn’t its length—it’s only 95 pages—or its simplicity. It’s the lived experience behind it.
Greive was an Australian paratrooper who witnessed suffering at the Thai-Cambodian border. When his military career ended due to illness, he faced years of rejection, failure, and despair living in a small studio apartment in Sydney. He wasn’t writing from theory. He was writing from the bottom.
One day in a coffee shop, feeling completely stuck, he sketched a turtle on its back. That one image—a creature unable to right itself—became the spark for everything that followed.
Why It Speaks to Us Now
The book uses black-and-white animal photography paired with simple captions to take you on an emotional journey. A grumpy frog. A tired elephant. A polar bear that looks like it’s had enough.
You see yourself in those images. And that’s the magic. By taking yourself a little less seriously—by laughing at a miserable-looking animal instead of drowning in self-criticism—something shifts. The book doesn’t pretend difficult feelings don’t exist. Instead, it offers a quiet, humorous reminder that feelings pass. That life is worth living. That you just need to keep moving.
For people affected by cancer, this matters. The book delivers resilience without clinical language. It honours real pain while pointing toward agency—the small acts that help us shift direction, even just an inch.
The Blue Day Philosophy in Three Steps
1. Name it: Admit the feeling. Say it out loud: “I’m sad. I’m scared. I’m exhausted.”
2. Know it’s temporary: Feelings shift. This heavy day will pass. You will feel better again.
3. Do something: Move your body. Create something. Call someone. Take one small action toward a different direction.
That’s it. No jargon. No pressure. Just a structured pathway back toward hope.
You Can Borrow It From Our Library
The Blue Day Book is available to borrow free from CanSurvive’s lending library. As a member, you can access it along with dozens of other books, DVDs, and resources chosen specifically for people affected by cancer and their families.
Membership is $45 per year and includes access to our lending library, support groups, educational events, and our full range of complementary therapies.
Ready to borrow? Contact us on 07 5315 8371 or visit us at Kon-Tiki Business Centre, Tower 1.303, 55 Plaza Parade, Maroochydore. You can also email us through our website.
The Bigger Picture
Since its release in 2000, The Blue Day Book has sold 30 million copies in 115 countries and been translated into 37 languages. It’s been used in school classrooms to teach emotional resilience and in therapy settings to help people navigate grief and loss.
That kind of longevity matters. It means the book speaks to something real. Something universal. When a simple, humble approach to difficult feelings reaches that many people across that many cultures, it’s saying something true.
Your Blue Days Deserve Care
You don’t need a complicated strategy or a clinical manual to get through a difficult day. Sometimes you just need a grumpy animal, a bit of humour, and a quiet reminder that you’re not alone—and that it will pass.
That’s what The Blue Day Book offers. Simple. Honest. True.
All members can borrow The Blue Day Book from CanSurvive’s lending library at no additional cost. If you’d like to join or learn more, call us on 07 5315 8371.
