Sharon Dempsey graduated from Queen's University Belfast in 1991 and completed a postgraduate diploma in newspaper journalism at City University, London. She works as a health writer and freelance journalist. Her first book, My Brain Tumour Adventures: The Story of a Little Boy Coping with a Brain Tumour, was written for her son Owen who was undergoing treatment for a brain tumour. Owen died in March 2004 at the age of six. Sharon lives in Belfast with her husband Liam and two daughters Kate and Sarah.