February 8, 2026 • 21 mins
In 2021, Charlotte Lockhart recieved a terminal stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis and was given just 3 - 5 years to live. She's now closing in on that 5 year mark and is feeling better than ever.
From traditional treatments like chemotherapy and radiation to unexpected helpers like kombucha, Charlotte talks about the work she's doing to stay healthy, and how the experience has helped her realise what's truly important in life.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome, So we need to Talk Tony Street's lifestyle and
Wellness podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hello, welcome to We Need to Talk. It is lovely
to have you with us for another episode now. In
twenty twenty one, Charlotte Lockhart, who you might recognize from
the Four Day Working Week movement, received a terminal stage
four breast cancer diagnosis. She was given three to five
years to live, and as she approaches that milestone, she
is still here, living fully on what she calls her
(00:28):
good health window, and I can attest to the fact
that she is looking very, very well. Charlotte is now
balancing treatment, motherhood advocacy, and is still choosing joy every
single day. She is the chair of Give a Little,
a supporter of Sweet Louise. She's a champion for fair
access to medicines, and somehow she still finds time to
make kum butcher, tend gardens, and plan big life adventures,
(00:50):
which we're going to hear about soon. Today we're talking
to her about the surprising beauty that can show up
when life suddenly becomes finite. And this is a conversation
about what really matters when everything else falls away. It
is lovely to have you here. Charlotte, can you give
us an update in your health, because if I didn't
know that you were in this terminal diagnosis, I would
(01:11):
never have guessed by looking at you yes, so.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
You would have had a different impression at the beginning
of this year. So I'd had a prime primary best
cancer back in two thousand and four and was stage
two and was all great too, and was never given
any expectation that I wouldn't survive, and the kids were little,
and I did chemo and radio and all that, and
seventeen years later I had this diagnosis and it was
(01:38):
it's a slap in the face because originally, when I
was starting back with the doctors, I'm like, yep, that's.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Fine, I know what we'll do. We'll cut it out,
and well chemo and radio.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
You know, I'm a woman who likes a plan, and
in my head there was a plan, and the doctor
said to me, no, this is not curable, and I
hadn't up until that moment, fully understood that. So therefore
then you end up in a situation where you're like,
oh my goodness, now we are incredibly lucky here in
New Zealand. I know that people do have their concerns
(02:10):
about things. But the type of drug that I'm on,
or the drugs I'm on for my cancer are the
same that I would be on anywhere in the world,
so and they are funded by FARMAC. So Farmac has
definitely got something right there. And so I went straight
onto the drugs. It had my scans and things, and
it appeared in my shoulder which looked like a Christmas
tree on the scans, with all these little tumors that
(02:34):
we hadn't seen otherwise.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
And then I'm fortunate enough.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
That I then we spend a bit of time up
in the UK, and so I saw an oncologist up there,
and I have what they call an off label program
as well, which is using standard medically proven drugs in
their off label way which allows us to as we know,
(02:59):
like aspirin, for example, was paying medification and they worked
out that actually it's quite good for fitting your blood. Yes,
So it's that same saying thing where it's looking looking
to treat cancer with all of its pathways. So within
the year my scans that I was having quarterly, my
fourth scan showed no evidence of the disease anymore. Picked
up an aneurysm in my brain, different problem.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
How did you doubt?
Speaker 3 (03:23):
How of you surgery? With surgery that was so that
was sort of pandemic you time. So it's all fun
in games there. But the drugs that I'm on, you know,
they are cumulative in terms of how they how they
and my energy just declined and declined and declined. And
at the beginning of the year, I was just really unwell,
(03:44):
to the point where I was thinking I was going
to have to get a disabled badge for the car.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
And that's that's an energy side of things. So is
the cancer still present?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
The cancer is not there, but I can barely walk
up the stairs. So I'm going to add a Tapapa
event in London, and I speaking to one of the
ladies there and she's another key weet super fit. Louise's
fifteen times black belt judo.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
She's sixty, she.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Coaches, she's fully on board with all of her footspit
And she said, I said, how are you.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
She said, I've not been very well. She said I
can barely walk.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Up the stairs.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
And I'm like, oh, sounds like me. And she had
a virus.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
And I've been having blood tests and seeing all sorts
of specialist here in New Zealand and trying to get
to the bottom of what it is. Oh and also
I have an auto immune condition as well, so I'm
going to say.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I relate to not knowing what all the symptoms are. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
So I've got hashimotos, which is not nearly as bad
as yours and quite common, but.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
You've got the cancer and the nuralizon on top.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
I went, it's not a competition. I want to have
to be fair.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
I suddenly thought, okay, that is That's what I'm dealing with.
And so I had six months where i was barely
able to do anything and I'm resting in the afternoons
and I'm vomiting up our stomach acid and it was
a virus and well I think so, although nothing came
out in the blood tests, and I'm just really really
really unwell. And a girlfriend of mine in the UK,
(05:15):
she's a sixty five year old Cambridge educated chair with
one of the local supermarket chains and stuff like a
proper fully put to here the businesswoman she said, have
you tried komb butcher?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
And I'm like, oh, it's all a bit young for me.
It's all of it woo woo, isn't it Christine.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
She's known as seriously to try this, and she was
making it herself, sort your gut out, to sort my
gut out, and so she were staying with her. She
had me drinking little bits of it while we were there,
and then she sent me away with the scobie and
a and a jar, and that started me on the
whole process of managing my gut health. So it just
(05:56):
started with with the kombucher. And then and because I could,
I was really struggling to eat, and certainly breakfast. I
had started on smoothies and so, and they were just
milk and banana and some berries and stuff like that.
But actually I started putting yogurt in. And then someone said,
(06:18):
have you tried kafer? And I'm like, well, I'm doing
kumb butcher. I don't know, you know, may as well,
and may as well and so so and so that
that again improved.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Suddenly I'm able to walk.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
So you think the komb butcher has helped.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
It's the whole gut hel thing. But I just started
slowly started with the kumb butcher. And you know it's kumbucher.
Isn't acquiet taste for some people? I don't use the
commercial stuff because they really just can't be sure what's
in it.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
And it's so easy to make.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I mean, I'm the opposite. I have the I buy
the bottles because I feel like I'd screw up the
make it home.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
No, make it home, just you put some tea and
some sugar into and the scobie into a jar, and
then a week later you've got komb Butcher.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
It is seriously easy tap to make.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
We need to talk podcast a preset on the free
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Speaker 2 (07:08):
Do you take any gut health tablets or vitamins? No,
So this is.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
One of the really interesting things. So I started getting sorry,
this is just go back one. So we're in London
and I went to this conference put on by our
bank called Creating the Future, and one of the people
that they had they had all sorts of really amazing
people speaking, but one of the people they had was
a chap called Tim Specter as an inspector. Now he's
(07:34):
a research scientist at King's College in London and he
has a whole thing called so we feel free to
look it up, but gut health is his thing and
he's going, well, if you're doing this, this, this and
this and this and this and this. These are the
things you need to be doing for your gut health.
And I turned to Andrew and I said, we're doing
most of those things. And we just started doing them
(07:56):
because I was trying to find a way to manage
my health. My weight had ballooned. I was seventy nine kg.
I've now down to sixty seven. And what I have
found was that by and I gave up drinking. That's
the other thing, because you know, alcohol is evil apparently,
but also just it just stopped agreeing with me. And
(08:19):
I wonder whether I've ever really agreed with me. But
and there'll be a whole pile of people out there going,
oh god, I could never do that. But actually, as
my gut health improved, I found it easier and easier
because the consequences were more noticeable. I can really tell
(08:39):
the difference between the energy that you see now and
if I do.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Something that's not.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
And so it's been super easy because when I have
you have your gut ouse sorted, you just don't find
that you're needing all of those terrible snacks and all
of those terrible things that put in your stomach.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
What else have you been doing so apart from the
kom butcher, what else?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Well, So I have kafir and my cafir and yogurt
are my smoothie. I've found what works for me, and
so I don't want a whole pile of people running
around going, oh my goodness, she's lost twelve kg in
six months.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
I'm going to.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Copy her, because you've really got to find what works
for yours. Our microbiome in our stomachs is individual to us,
and so therefore you've got to find what works for you.
And so I sort of say on my own scientific experiment,
but there are certain key things like the kim butcher
and the kaffir and the yogurt and fermented foods. Now
(09:36):
fermented foods includes coffee.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Shall I repeat that it includes coffee for anybody's out there.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
It doesn't include alcohol, even though obviously wine and things
they are fermented zaukra, and it includes our cra. But
it also includes cheese and so there so it's not
like I'm going around going oh no, no, no, I
can't have any of that. But it is also a
about getting rid of the ultra process foods. But this
is all standard stuff that we all know. So I'm
(10:06):
just doing all these things. I start my day with
a smoothie. Always thought people who started their days with
a smoothie were completely insane, because who doesn't like a
big piece of voguls with slathered and fabulous New Zealand
butter and whatever might be your topping. I'm a marmite
girl now, but I start my day with a smoothie.
(10:28):
And on the days that I do that, and I
put in flax seeds and hem seeds and cheer for
fiber and things, and so yeah, I don't know. You
have to do your own research and you have to
find what works for you. But I have become the
queen of people giving people scobies for kombuchaes.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Because you know that works. So let's just go back
to twenty twenty one when you got that diagnosis. That
must have been pretty scary.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
It is, and I had a girlfriend with me because
Andrew was in mi IQ, and you know, it's just
I just hadn't fully thought that through, as I said,
So I'm like, okay, right, well, so what's the next plan?
But it's not really kind of walk away from the
appointment that it really hits you and you suddenly think.
(11:15):
So I went home and she'd said, if you're going
to go on the internet, these are the websites to
go to, because the internet can be quite evil, including
one in the UK which is McMillan, which is their
big cancer thing and they've got fabulous resources around information
about cancer as well. But she also said that best
(11:35):
support places are for people with metastatic breast cancer and
it can be men too. Don't Forget is a charity
called Sweet Louise which was set up in honor of
Louise Perkins by her husband Scott and her family to
support women with metastatic breast cancer. So I immediately messaged
(11:58):
into them and I'm like, I'm dying, what do I do?
Speaker 4 (12:01):
And they have coordinators that.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
You know they work part time hours, but their coordinator
form my area immediately picked up the phone. It wasn't
during her workouts, and she just said we've got you,
and they are.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
They're amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
They support they have coffee groups and they produe gifts
and support people with everything that is necessary, including information.
Because also the other thing, the complexity of something like
this and it's possibly a little bit the same with
your own condition. Everybody's condition is slightly different, yes, and
there are so many different forms of breast cancer. My
(12:40):
journey's not the same as somebody else's journey.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
And even at the stage that you get picked up
versus others that are further through or But the thing
that's interesting with you is you were given three to
five years and now you're here and you're actually looking
quite well. Is that quite hard for you to process?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
It's quite interesting because I mean the reality is we
now don't know. This drug that I'm on it's called
a palbo cyclib and it disrupts the cancer cell growth.
It's only been around since twenty sixteen. Goodness, yeah, I know,
because if I've had this diagnosis back in two thousand
and four, I wouldn't be alive today.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
So we have this.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
But I'm also doing some work with the Breast Cancer
Research Institute in Cambridge University in the UK, and they
have all sorts of things that they're on the cusp
of being able to do with The science is incredible.
So there will be a time in the not too
(13:38):
distant future where cancer won't have to be this scary.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
You know, it's not survivable.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
But all I'm trying to do is if I live
five years of blocks of five years, then the science
will catch up. So all I'm doing is trying to
give myself the chance. And so I'm doing as everyone
else is doing. I'm taking the dogs, I'm taking the advice,
I'm finding what works for me, and.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
I'm trying to live my best life.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Find us on Instagram at we need to talk with
Tony Street.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
So has your approach to life changed do you think
since getting the diagnosis and what you choose to do.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So we were in the throes of the whole four
day week thing when I got this diagnosis, and it
was very important to me that that actually grew. And
so it's not as big here in New Zealand, but
it's actually massive internationally. We've got twenty partnerships around the world.
There are whole countries that have converted.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
For those that don't know about this, this is the
instead of working five days a week, it's working for well,
it's actually even more than that. It's more about the hours.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Work it is.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
It's about a meaningful reduction in work time. So in
New Zealand that would be a thirty or thirty two
hour work week, as being a standard. So we're you know,
we're rushing around the world doing this, and I realized
that I was just I was missing out on too
much else as a consequence. So our South African partner
(15:13):
is an incredible woman called Karen, and also our Australian
partner Debbie, they sort of said, look, why don't we
lead it for you from here on in and then
you can come in and be one of our speakers,
you know, around the world when there is something, and
then you can get onto doing the things that are
(15:34):
important to you. And that was great because family is
the most important thing, and for me it's about having
a chance to spend as much time as possible with
Mike now grown up sons leaving their own lives. But
you know, birthdays are important, Christmas is important, having those
those times together where we can mark the fact that
(15:58):
we're all still together and we're still live because you
know what, growing old is a privilege, not a right,
and so we have to make sure that we're living
that life.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
What's interesting is I see quite a link here to
the four day week, because essentially what you're saying with
the full day week is you can be just as
productive with less ours, and that allows you more time
to spent with family and to do things that are
really important in our lives. Do you feel like your
diagnosis has almost validated the fact that we need to
have least working ours?
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Absolutely, you know, we do, we do, and you know
and the reality is that a lot of the decision makers,
of course they already have a bit of flexibility with
their time, they don't actually see that this really just
benefits your average person. Yes, particularly those people working under you.
It's good for them because when they get a breast
(16:48):
cancer diagnosis or some other terrible thing that happens in
their life, then what's giving them the chance to live
their best life too? And when you're living your best life,
you bring a great life to work as well. Don't forget,
you know, it's not it's not a one way street.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
What is the most important thing to you now that
you've had this diagnosis and you could potentially have a
finite period of time, I mean we all do, but
yours potentially more imminent. What is important to you? You've said, family, Yeah,
well it is.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
And look I'm came to get a bit more travel
under my belt as well.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
But no, look, it's for me.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
It's about how can I use the experience that I
have to make a real difference here in New Zealand.
I've recently joined the Tapapa Foundation Board to try and
really find out how we create the national Museum that
we all deserve and be part of that journey. We
are changing give a little out of recognition so that
(17:52):
it will still be this fabulous peer to peer thing,
but it'll be a lot more, a lot more more
meaningful and for the philanthropic and charitable sector so we
can grow. New Zealanders are really generous and so it's
about how we tap into that and become the vehicle
for that sort of thing. And then obviously that you
know I want I want to be doing more for
(18:14):
Sweet Louise with what we're doing there as well, So
you know, it's a chance to enjoy myself. I'm you know,
I'm needing to make time for my own exercise. Now,
twenty twenty six is going to be about strength training.
I know you're talking heavywhere about that? Yes, exactly, I
(18:35):
will be fifty nine, so you know strength training is
going to be the big thing. And then you know
we're going to spend a bit more time at the
Cambridge Research Center, and you know what I can do
to help grow what they're doing there as well.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
What does your family think about all these things you're doing,
because I know when I even had my autoimmune diagnosis,
I can tell my mum and daddy giving me the
sideil like you seem like you're busier than ever, and
you know, quite often family worry and think, no, you
actually should be slowing down and not doing as much.
Do you do? You get that? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
But what my mother used to give me that a
lot because she's used to seeing me going in ninety
to the dozen. And she used to say to me
when when I was visiting her she passed passed away,
but when I was visiting her.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
She became, yeah, you should be you should be back
at work.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
You know, you don't don't worry about me.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I'm you know, and you just used to say to her, Actually, Mum,
you know what this time together is about me. I'm
here to visit you, but it allows me to slow down.
And so I'm not going to sit here and be
on my phone as I have done in the past.
I'm just going to sit here and just be with
you and maybe we talk, maybe we don't, maybe we
(19:48):
just sit. And so it's about actually how you learn
to be that person and being present at.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
The times when you're there.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
My kids used to sadly Joe that if they ever
wanted something of me when they were young, that they
just have to ask me when I was on the phone,
and that that would have been most of their lives.
And so I used to I used to joke that,
because you know how great is being a grandmother, right,
I'm not a grandmother yet, children, but I used to
(20:20):
joke that, you know, I'm only being a mother so
I can be a grandmother.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
And I thought that was quite hilarious at the time.
But now that I might.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Not see grandchildren, I worry that I wished their lives
away with that one simple statement that just seems so
innocent at the time, and I think it's one of
those things. Be a mother for being a mother, and
if you get a chance to be a grandmother, then
then that's great. I'm not I'm going to be their
best grandmother. I will just literally drop everybody and everything.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
You see, every person that I know that's a grand
mother or granddad. It sees it's just the most special thing.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
I can't wait that moment I'm holding somebody else's child
that's related.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
To me in my arms. I'm going to be very
curious as to my emotional reaction.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
All Charlotte, thank you so much for joining me today,
and you are such an inspiration, you know, for anyone
that is going through an ongoing health battle. And it
seems like there are more and more people that have
got too little diagnoses but are being kept alive by
these amazing drugs.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Oh, we are so lucky. We are.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
We live in a generation where hope is definitely part
of where we live.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Or you have given a lot of people a lot
of hope today. So thank you and all the best
with your journey.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Thank you, thanks for listening to We need to talk.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Get in contact with us on Instagram at we need
to talk with Tony Street or email we need to
talk at Coastonline, dot co dot z
Welcome, So we need to Talk Tony Street's lifestyle and
Wellness podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hello, welcome to We Need to Talk. It is lovely
to have you with us for another episode now. In
twenty twenty one, Charlotte Lockhart, who you might recognize from
the Four Day Working Week movement, received a terminal stage
four breast cancer diagnosis. She was given three to five
years to live, and as she approaches that milestone, she
is still here, living fully on what she calls her
(00:28):
good health window, and I can attest to the fact
that she is looking very, very well. Charlotte is now
balancing treatment, motherhood advocacy, and is still choosing joy every
single day. She is the chair of Give a Little,
a supporter of Sweet Louise. She's a champion for fair
access to medicines, and somehow she still finds time to
make kum butcher, tend gardens, and plan big life adventures,
(00:50):
which we're going to hear about soon. Today we're talking
to her about the surprising beauty that can show up
when life suddenly becomes finite. And this is a conversation
about what really matters when everything else falls away. It
is lovely to have you here. Charlotte, can you give
us an update in your health, because if I didn't
know that you were in this terminal diagnosis, I would
(01:11):
never have guessed by looking at you yes, so.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
You would have had a different impression at the beginning
of this year. So I'd had a prime primary best
cancer back in two thousand and four and was stage
two and was all great too, and was never given
any expectation that I wouldn't survive, and the kids were little,
and I did chemo and radio and all that, and
seventeen years later I had this diagnosis and it was
(01:38):
it's a slap in the face because originally, when I
was starting back with the doctors, I'm like, yep, that's.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Fine, I know what we'll do. We'll cut it out,
and well chemo and radio.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
You know, I'm a woman who likes a plan, and
in my head there was a plan, and the doctor
said to me, no, this is not curable, and I
hadn't up until that moment, fully understood that. So therefore
then you end up in a situation where you're like,
oh my goodness, now we are incredibly lucky here in
New Zealand. I know that people do have their concerns
(02:10):
about things. But the type of drug that I'm on,
or the drugs I'm on for my cancer are the
same that I would be on anywhere in the world,
so and they are funded by FARMAC. So Farmac has
definitely got something right there. And so I went straight
onto the drugs. It had my scans and things, and
it appeared in my shoulder which looked like a Christmas
tree on the scans, with all these little tumors that
(02:34):
we hadn't seen otherwise.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
And then I'm fortunate enough.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
That I then we spend a bit of time up
in the UK, and so I saw an oncologist up there,
and I have what they call an off label program
as well, which is using standard medically proven drugs in
their off label way which allows us to as we know,
(02:59):
like aspirin, for example, was paying medification and they worked
out that actually it's quite good for fitting your blood. Yes,
So it's that same saying thing where it's looking looking
to treat cancer with all of its pathways. So within
the year my scans that I was having quarterly, my
fourth scan showed no evidence of the disease anymore. Picked
up an aneurysm in my brain, different problem.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
How did you doubt?
Speaker 3 (03:23):
How of you surgery? With surgery that was so that
was sort of pandemic you time. So it's all fun
in games there. But the drugs that I'm on, you know,
they are cumulative in terms of how they how they
and my energy just declined and declined and declined. And
at the beginning of the year, I was just really unwell,
(03:44):
to the point where I was thinking I was going
to have to get a disabled badge for the car.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
And that's that's an energy side of things. So is
the cancer still present?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
The cancer is not there, but I can barely walk
up the stairs. So I'm going to add a Tapapa
event in London, and I speaking to one of the
ladies there and she's another key weet super fit. Louise's
fifteen times black belt judo.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
She's sixty, she.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Coaches, she's fully on board with all of her footspit
And she said, I said, how are you.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
She said, I've not been very well. She said I
can barely walk.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Up the stairs.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
And I'm like, oh, sounds like me. And she had
a virus.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
And I've been having blood tests and seeing all sorts
of specialist here in New Zealand and trying to get
to the bottom of what it is. Oh and also
I have an auto immune condition as well, so I'm
going to say.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I relate to not knowing what all the symptoms are. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
So I've got hashimotos, which is not nearly as bad
as yours and quite common, but.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
You've got the cancer and the nuralizon on top.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
I went, it's not a competition. I want to have
to be fair.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
I suddenly thought, okay, that is That's what I'm dealing with.
And so I had six months where i was barely
able to do anything and I'm resting in the afternoons
and I'm vomiting up our stomach acid and it was
a virus and well I think so, although nothing came
out in the blood tests, and I'm just really really
really unwell. And a girlfriend of mine in the UK,
(05:15):
she's a sixty five year old Cambridge educated chair with
one of the local supermarket chains and stuff like a
proper fully put to here the businesswoman she said, have
you tried komb butcher?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
And I'm like, oh, it's all a bit young for me.
It's all of it woo woo, isn't it Christine.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
She's known as seriously to try this, and she was
making it herself, sort your gut out, to sort my
gut out, and so she were staying with her. She
had me drinking little bits of it while we were there,
and then she sent me away with the scobie and
a and a jar, and that started me on the
whole process of managing my gut health. So it just
(05:56):
started with with the kombucher. And then and because I could,
I was really struggling to eat, and certainly breakfast. I
had started on smoothies and so, and they were just
milk and banana and some berries and stuff like that.
But actually I started putting yogurt in. And then someone said,
(06:18):
have you tried kafer? And I'm like, well, I'm doing
kumb butcher. I don't know, you know, may as well,
and may as well and so so and so that
that again improved.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Suddenly I'm able to walk.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
So you think the komb butcher has helped.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
It's the whole gut hel thing. But I just started
slowly started with the kumb butcher. And you know it's kumbucher.
Isn't acquiet taste for some people? I don't use the
commercial stuff because they really just can't be sure what's
in it.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
And it's so easy to make.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I mean, I'm the opposite. I have the I buy
the bottles because I feel like I'd screw up the
make it home.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
No, make it home, just you put some tea and
some sugar into and the scobie into a jar, and
then a week later you've got komb Butcher.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
It is seriously easy tap to make.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
We need to talk podcast a preset on the free
iHeart app and never miss an episode.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Do you take any gut health tablets or vitamins? No,
So this is.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
One of the really interesting things. So I started getting sorry,
this is just go back one. So we're in London
and I went to this conference put on by our
bank called Creating the Future, and one of the people
that they had they had all sorts of really amazing
people speaking, but one of the people they had was
a chap called Tim Specter as an inspector. Now he's
(07:34):
a research scientist at King's College in London and he
has a whole thing called so we feel free to
look it up, but gut health is his thing and
he's going, well, if you're doing this, this, this and
this and this and this and this. These are the
things you need to be doing for your gut health.
And I turned to Andrew and I said, we're doing
most of those things. And we just started doing them
(07:56):
because I was trying to find a way to manage
my health. My weight had ballooned. I was seventy nine kg.
I've now down to sixty seven. And what I have
found was that by and I gave up drinking. That's
the other thing, because you know, alcohol is evil apparently,
but also just it just stopped agreeing with me. And
(08:19):
I wonder whether I've ever really agreed with me. But
and there'll be a whole pile of people out there going,
oh god, I could never do that. But actually, as
my gut health improved, I found it easier and easier
because the consequences were more noticeable. I can really tell
(08:39):
the difference between the energy that you see now and
if I do.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Something that's not.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
And so it's been super easy because when I have
you have your gut ouse sorted, you just don't find
that you're needing all of those terrible snacks and all
of those terrible things that put in your stomach.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
What else have you been doing so apart from the
kom butcher, what else?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Well, So I have kafir and my cafir and yogurt
are my smoothie. I've found what works for me, and
so I don't want a whole pile of people running
around going, oh my goodness, she's lost twelve kg in
six months.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
I'm going to.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Copy her, because you've really got to find what works
for yours. Our microbiome in our stomachs is individual to us,
and so therefore you've got to find what works for you.
And so I sort of say on my own scientific experiment,
but there are certain key things like the kim butcher
and the kaffir and the yogurt and fermented foods. Now
(09:36):
fermented foods includes coffee.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Shall I repeat that it includes coffee for anybody's out there.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
It doesn't include alcohol, even though obviously wine and things
they are fermented zaukra, and it includes our cra. But
it also includes cheese and so there so it's not
like I'm going around going oh no, no, no, I
can't have any of that. But it is also a
about getting rid of the ultra process foods. But this
is all standard stuff that we all know. So I'm
(10:06):
just doing all these things. I start my day with
a smoothie. Always thought people who started their days with
a smoothie were completely insane, because who doesn't like a
big piece of voguls with slathered and fabulous New Zealand
butter and whatever might be your topping. I'm a marmite
girl now, but I start my day with a smoothie.
(10:28):
And on the days that I do that, and I
put in flax seeds and hem seeds and cheer for
fiber and things, and so yeah, I don't know. You
have to do your own research and you have to
find what works for you. But I have become the
queen of people giving people scobies for kombuchaes.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Because you know that works. So let's just go back
to twenty twenty one when you got that diagnosis. That
must have been pretty scary.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
It is, and I had a girlfriend with me because
Andrew was in mi IQ, and you know, it's just
I just hadn't fully thought that through, as I said,
So I'm like, okay, right, well, so what's the next plan?
But it's not really kind of walk away from the
appointment that it really hits you and you suddenly think.
(11:15):
So I went home and she'd said, if you're going
to go on the internet, these are the websites to
go to, because the internet can be quite evil, including
one in the UK which is McMillan, which is their
big cancer thing and they've got fabulous resources around information
about cancer as well. But she also said that best
(11:35):
support places are for people with metastatic breast cancer and
it can be men too. Don't Forget is a charity
called Sweet Louise which was set up in honor of
Louise Perkins by her husband Scott and her family to
support women with metastatic breast cancer. So I immediately messaged
(11:58):
into them and I'm like, I'm dying, what do I do?
Speaker 4 (12:01):
And they have coordinators that.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
You know they work part time hours, but their coordinator
form my area immediately picked up the phone. It wasn't
during her workouts, and she just said we've got you,
and they are.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
They're amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
They support they have coffee groups and they produe gifts
and support people with everything that is necessary, including information.
Because also the other thing, the complexity of something like
this and it's possibly a little bit the same with
your own condition. Everybody's condition is slightly different, yes, and
there are so many different forms of breast cancer. My
(12:40):
journey's not the same as somebody else's journey.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
And even at the stage that you get picked up
versus others that are further through or But the thing
that's interesting with you is you were given three to
five years and now you're here and you're actually looking
quite well. Is that quite hard for you to process?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
It's quite interesting because I mean the reality is we
now don't know. This drug that I'm on it's called
a palbo cyclib and it disrupts the cancer cell growth.
It's only been around since twenty sixteen. Goodness, yeah, I know,
because if I've had this diagnosis back in two thousand
and four, I wouldn't be alive today.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
So we have this.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
But I'm also doing some work with the Breast Cancer
Research Institute in Cambridge University in the UK, and they
have all sorts of things that they're on the cusp
of being able to do with The science is incredible.
So there will be a time in the not too
(13:38):
distant future where cancer won't have to be this scary.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
You know, it's not survivable.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
But all I'm trying to do is if I live
five years of blocks of five years, then the science
will catch up. So all I'm doing is trying to
give myself the chance. And so I'm doing as everyone
else is doing. I'm taking the dogs, I'm taking the advice,
I'm finding what works for me, and.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
I'm trying to live my best life.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Find us on Instagram at we need to talk with
Tony Street.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
So has your approach to life changed do you think
since getting the diagnosis and what you choose to do.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So we were in the throes of the whole four
day week thing when I got this diagnosis, and it
was very important to me that that actually grew. And
so it's not as big here in New Zealand, but
it's actually massive internationally. We've got twenty partnerships around the world.
There are whole countries that have converted.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
For those that don't know about this, this is the
instead of working five days a week, it's working for well,
it's actually even more than that. It's more about the hours.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Work it is.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
It's about a meaningful reduction in work time. So in
New Zealand that would be a thirty or thirty two
hour work week, as being a standard. So we're you know,
we're rushing around the world doing this, and I realized
that I was just I was missing out on too
much else as a consequence. So our South African partner
(15:13):
is an incredible woman called Karen, and also our Australian
partner Debbie, they sort of said, look, why don't we
lead it for you from here on in and then
you can come in and be one of our speakers,
you know, around the world when there is something, and
then you can get onto doing the things that are
(15:34):
important to you. And that was great because family is
the most important thing, and for me it's about having
a chance to spend as much time as possible with
Mike now grown up sons leaving their own lives. But
you know, birthdays are important, Christmas is important, having those
those times together where we can mark the fact that
(15:58):
we're all still together and we're still live because you
know what, growing old is a privilege, not a right,
and so we have to make sure that we're living
that life.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
What's interesting is I see quite a link here to
the four day week, because essentially what you're saying with
the full day week is you can be just as
productive with less ours, and that allows you more time
to spent with family and to do things that are
really important in our lives. Do you feel like your
diagnosis has almost validated the fact that we need to
have least working ours?
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Absolutely, you know, we do, we do, and you know
and the reality is that a lot of the decision makers,
of course they already have a bit of flexibility with
their time, they don't actually see that this really just
benefits your average person. Yes, particularly those people working under you.
It's good for them because when they get a breast
(16:48):
cancer diagnosis or some other terrible thing that happens in
their life, then what's giving them the chance to live
their best life too? And when you're living your best life,
you bring a great life to work as well. Don't forget,
you know, it's not it's not a one way street.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
What is the most important thing to you now that
you've had this diagnosis and you could potentially have a
finite period of time, I mean we all do, but
yours potentially more imminent. What is important to you? You've said, family, Yeah,
well it is.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
And look I'm came to get a bit more travel
under my belt as well.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
But no, look, it's for me.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
It's about how can I use the experience that I
have to make a real difference here in New Zealand.
I've recently joined the Tapapa Foundation Board to try and
really find out how we create the national Museum that
we all deserve and be part of that journey. We
are changing give a little out of recognition so that
(17:52):
it will still be this fabulous peer to peer thing,
but it'll be a lot more, a lot more more
meaningful and for the philanthropic and charitable sector so we
can grow. New Zealanders are really generous and so it's
about how we tap into that and become the vehicle
for that sort of thing. And then obviously that you
know I want I want to be doing more for
(18:14):
Sweet Louise with what we're doing there as well, So
you know, it's a chance to enjoy myself. I'm you know,
I'm needing to make time for my own exercise. Now,
twenty twenty six is going to be about strength training.
I know you're talking heavywhere about that? Yes, exactly, I
(18:35):
will be fifty nine, so you know strength training is
going to be the big thing. And then you know
we're going to spend a bit more time at the
Cambridge Research Center, and you know what I can do
to help grow what they're doing there as well.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
What does your family think about all these things you're doing,
because I know when I even had my autoimmune diagnosis,
I can tell my mum and daddy giving me the
sideil like you seem like you're busier than ever, and
you know, quite often family worry and think, no, you
actually should be slowing down and not doing as much.
Do you do? You get that? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
But what my mother used to give me that a
lot because she's used to seeing me going in ninety
to the dozen. And she used to say to me
when when I was visiting her she passed passed away,
but when I was visiting her.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
She became, yeah, you should be you should be back
at work.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
You know, you don't don't worry about me.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I'm you know, and you just used to say to her, Actually, Mum,
you know what this time together is about me. I'm
here to visit you, but it allows me to slow down.
And so I'm not going to sit here and be
on my phone as I have done in the past.
I'm just going to sit here and just be with
you and maybe we talk, maybe we don't, maybe we
(19:48):
just sit. And so it's about actually how you learn
to be that person and being present at.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
The times when you're there.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
My kids used to sadly Joe that if they ever
wanted something of me when they were young, that they
just have to ask me when I was on the phone,
and that that would have been most of their lives.
And so I used to I used to joke that,
because you know how great is being a grandmother, right,
I'm not a grandmother yet, children, but I used to
(20:20):
joke that, you know, I'm only being a mother so
I can be a grandmother.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
And I thought that was quite hilarious at the time.
But now that I might.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Not see grandchildren, I worry that I wished their lives
away with that one simple statement that just seems so
innocent at the time, and I think it's one of
those things. Be a mother for being a mother, and
if you get a chance to be a grandmother, then
then that's great. I'm not I'm going to be their
best grandmother. I will just literally drop everybody and everything.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
You see, every person that I know that's a grand
mother or granddad. It sees it's just the most special thing.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
I can't wait that moment I'm holding somebody else's child
that's related.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
To me in my arms. I'm going to be very
curious as to my emotional reaction.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
All Charlotte, thank you so much for joining me today,
and you are such an inspiration, you know, for anyone
that is going through an ongoing health battle. And it
seems like there are more and more people that have
got too little diagnoses but are being kept alive by
these amazing drugs.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Oh, we are so lucky. We are.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
We live in a generation where hope is definitely part
of where we live.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Or you have given a lot of people a lot
of hope today. So thank you and all the best
with your journey.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Thank you, thanks for listening to We need to talk.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Get in contact with us on Instagram at we need
to talk with Tony Street or email we need to
talk at Coastonline, dot co dot z
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