Author
Joanna O’Donoghue was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease in her mid-twenties. Despite this setback, after raising a family and working full time, in recent years, Joanna has travelled extensively and documented her journeys in journals. Joanna also has a passion for helping children and neurodivergent young people. She has had a long career in education, beginning as an English teacher and going on to work with young people with challenging behaviour and mental health needs in many different roles.
In 2022, she published Lockdown Stories: Reflections on the Pandemic from around the world. These were stories from people she had met around the world on her travels.
In 2025, she published a book, Gutsy Travels, Travelling the World with My Invisible Friend. In this book, Joanna shares her adventures to some of the most remote corners of the world, while facing the added challenge of living with Crohn's Disease. It is also available as an audiobook.
Her recent book is a work of fiction, "When Love Slips Away" to be published on October 28th 2026. This is the story of Dee, whose life unfolds through first love, loss, heartbreak and the enduring strength of friendship from the summer of 1977 to the eve of her fiftieth birthday on the Greek island of Paros. From a teenage romance to the devastating loss of the man she believed she would spend her life with, Dee is forced to rebuild herself more than once. As she creates a new life and reconnects with family she never knew existed, she begins to believe that happiness may still be possible.Then, on the night of her fiftieth birthday, an unexpected face from her past appears, making her wonder whether love has not slipped away after all.
