An author, who lost his mam to cancer, is heading back to his hometown for the official launch of his new book, that talks about his family's journey.

Matt Harper-Hardcastle began a blog when his mam Lorraine Harper, was diagnosed with cancer, as a way to keep family and friends up to date with her treatment.

And it has now been turned into a book, which is now on the shelves, entitled The Day The Alien Came.

The former Harrington man is coming to Workington library on February 21 for a emotive launch of the book – the venue being his mam's former workplace.

Pamela Wilkinson, a former colleague of Mrs Harper's said: "This launch is very close to the hearts of library staff in Allerdale as his mam Lorraine was a very dear colleague of ours.

"Hopefully people will come along. The event is free."

The launch takes place at 2pm.

Mr Harper admitted writing had helped him through some tough times and he hopes it will also keep memories of his mam alive for others and help those on their own journey.

“It wasn’t necessarily hard to write the original blog as it was more of an unsolicited outpouring of how I was feeling," he said.

“Transposing it into a book made me reflect on everything that had happened since my mam’s diagnosis.

"Some of it was extremely difficult, but other moments gave me really vivid memories of my mam, and both sides of that are important to the grieving process.

“I really think it is important to talk about grief in all of its guises and this is what writing the book enabled me to do.“I really hope people get from the book whatever it is that made them pick it up; from those who knew my mam and want to bring back memories of her, to those that are going through their own experiences of loss and grief and want to feel that they are not alone. “It is not a self help book, but it has lessons I have learned along the way that I might have found useful knowing from day one, so the book is also for those that are at their day one of ‘an alien invasion’.”