Press

A Superbug Killed My Daughter at 25

USAToday | November 22, 2022

Five years ago, my daughter Mallory died. She had just turned 25. The coroner recorded her cause of death as cystic fibrosis, a disease that inflicts severe damage to the lungs and other organs. In fact, what killed her was a bacterial infection that had grown resistant to antibiotics.

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‘Salt In My Soul’ Review: Living, even thriving with illness

The New York Times, Ben Kenigsberg | January 20, 2022

Making a documentary that doubles as a final testament is no easy task. But with access to family members, doctors, personal reflections and hospital footage (which includes a surgery), “Salt in My Soul” poignantly reconstructs the life of Mallory Smith, who received a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis at 3 years old.

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Cystic Fibrosis patients turn to experimental phage therapy

The New York Times | May 17, 2019

Frank Buckley interviews author and publicist Diane Shader Smith, who’s daughter, Mallory, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and authored the posthumously published book “Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life.”

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Column: A memoir unlike any you’ve read: A young woman’s inspiring struggle with her invisible killer

LA Times | March 08, 2019

Mallory Smith was a toddler in 1995 when doctors finally diagnosed her persistent cough and runny nose: cystic fibrosis. Life expectancy with the disease at the time was between 25 and 30 years.

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Review: The documentary ‘Salt In My Soul’ is a moving tribute to Mallory Smith

Los Angeles Times, Kimber Myers | January 20, 2022

Intimacy pervades the moving documentary “Salt in My Soul,” based on the posthumously published journals of Mallory Smith, a vibrant young woman with cystic fibrosis. Smith chronicled her experience with both raw honesty and real eloquence, and director Will Battersby refuses to cut away from more painful moments of the disease and its effects on Smith and her family.

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Salt In My Soul: Poignant film calls attention to the need for phages for antibiotic resistance

Forbes, Judy Stone | January 22, 2022

Mallory Smith was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was only 3-years old. Despite daily life interrupted by intensive treatments and more than 70 hospitalizations, she went on to become an excellent athlete and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford, as well as an environmental journalist. Most of all, Mallory had a remarkable spirit and resilience. She lived life more fully than most of us ever do, knowing that she might die at any moment.

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Superbugs are nearly impossible to fight. This last-resort medical treatment offers hope

TIME Magazine | December 18, 2017

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The Value of the Patient Voice: A Review of Salt in My Soul

Cambridge University Press | November 22, 2022

Mallory Smith’s posthumously published book, Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life, is an insightful and moving account of one young woman’s experience living with a chronic, often invisible, illness. Much of what Mallory included in her journal was too difficult for her to share with family and friends while she was alive, yet she hoped that her writing would one day “offer insight for people living with, or loving someone with, chronic illness.”

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To save a young woman besieged by Superbugs, Scientists hunt a killer virus.

STAT News | November 10, 2017

The word from the doctors came early this week: They had tried one cocktail of antibiotics after another, but Mallory Smith’s fever and chill and chest rattle were only getting worse. They were out of options.

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TO SAVE A YOUNG WOMAN BESIEGED BY SUPERBUGS, SCIENTISTS HUNT A KILLER VIRUS

PBS | November 12, 2017

The word from the doctors came early this week: They had tried one cocktail of antibiotics after another, but Mallory Smith’s fever and chill and chest rattle were only getting worse. They were out of options.

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