“Will I ever be able to sail again?”

These were the first words Rachel Gotto remembers asking a close friend after coming round from major brain surgery.

Gotto has spent her life on, in and around the sea, as one of the Bendon family from the magical west Cork harbour of Glandore.

For Gotto, the Atlantic has been a constant solace, amid considerable pain and suffering. Rachel lost her brother Dominic to cancer, and her husband Nic to a diving accident when she was six months pregnant with her daughter Nicola.

She was diagnosed with a large benign inoperable brain tumour, and after an exhaustive search she found a surgeon who was willing to "give it a go". However, she was left with paralysis on the left-hand side of her body which she had to learn to overcome. She says that her greatest challenge after all that was shaking a dependency on prescription drugs.

Gotto, who is now practising as a hypnotherapist in Galway, has recorded her path to recovery in her recently published book, Flying on the Inside, which she spoke to Wavelengths about when we met overlooking Rusheen Bay.

Flying on the Inside: A Memoir of Trauma and Recovery by Rachel Gotto is published by Little a books and is available on Amazon and on Audible.