#CancerCanDoOne podcast

How do you explain what cancer is to children?  How to do that with facts they can understand, in an every day way they can follow and without frightening them?

Jen and Nic meet by chance at a cancer convention. Jen is a teacher and designer and Nic a nurse. They hear suggestions made but they're not sure they're the answer. At all, in fact. Anyway, the two women keep in touch and that children-and-cancer thought keeps coming back....

Dale was at the top of his game. Literally.

A six foot 3, rugby playing, in-demand career-smashing, fiercely intelligent man with unlimited prospects.  The hours were madness and the workload immense but it was all about the future. 

And that was on top of having an incredible, wonderful partner and two small children under five. 

A family of love in those fabulous years when families slowly build, grow and enjoy new discoveries to...

We all know sleep is important. But if you have a chronic illness—or cancer—it's not just about feeling rested.

Sleep plays a direct role in treatment effectiveness, recovery, and overall health. Lack of sleep affects so many of us in the modern world and the working life culture of the West doesn't exactly help. Fancy an afternoon nap at work? Ridiculous waste of time. Except it isn't. The opposite, in fact as you're about to hea...

What happens when cancer gets a sense of humour? And when a late autism diagnosis changes how some healthcare professionals see cancer care?

In this episode, we meet two men rewriting the script—literally. One through a fabulously funny, no-holds-barred blog about his incurable cancer experience, the other through a powerful new book unpacking autism, prostate cancer, and the gaps in some healthcare professionals' understanding.

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'I wish I had understood the risks more clearly.  My family made decisions they didn't fully understand...'

This isn't a blame game, absolutely not - this is just life.  Everyone is doing the very best they can in a horribly difficult moment.

There is a limited time to get a message across, options need to be outlined, recommendations made. And jargon and specific terms can be used, that in clever hindsight, we just didn't understa...

What we eat can shape our cancer risk and treatment—and for those undergoing treatment, food can be a lifeline.

In this episode, we explore how diet impacts prevention, why some cancer patients lose weight, and how food traditions in some cultures are evolving.

So, from cultural habits to healthier alternatives, we uncover practical steps to take control of your health.

Gina Geibner is an Advanced Specialist Oncology Dietitian w...

'You're looking well. You know where I am if you need anything...' 

All statements with the best of intentions from a good place.  But they are statements. They're not questions. We accidentally close the conversation down by never having a conversation in the first place. Didn't mean to, didn't want to upset you any more, is perhaps the thinking.

Sharron Moffat will tell you there isn't necessarily a right or a wrong way to have t...

Stay with me; it’ll make sense in the end. Trust me.  Now, I’ve got to be honest. I couldn't have second-guessed some of the topics we've talked about on the #CancerCanDoOne podcast, which only began earlier this year…

I imagined a cancer awareness agenda because you've got to start somewhere, and quite rightly, with audio projects like this, it’s the audience that decides on that agenda.  And it transpires the audience that was lo...

Fake news, websites, 'kryptonite'. There's a sizable list to get through here. And since when has stress been a key factor in our cancer susceptibility?

We're all stressed - a bit or a lot. Life can be a bit of a handful at times, and we know we need a bit of stress to keep us...well...aware; alert.

Bystanders like me who simply don't know, for certain, the how and why answers to the above -...

Anna Rathkopf was diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer. She was 37.

She was suddenly unable to express herself, temporarily cut off from the day-to-day.  As she puts it, she felt she was 'no longer a driver in my own story.'  So she turned to what she best understood.  Already an accomplished photographer she began documenting that story with her camera, taking hundreds of images over seven years.

Her husband Jordan - also a ...

The extraordinary power of music and how it changes lives.

Music therapy has a massive, positive impact on helping cancer patients find some peace and bring back valuable memories at a very tough time.  Alphonso Archer previously worked in sales in IT in the UK, but his own cancer diagnosis shifted priorities. 

Now with a Masters Degree in Music Psychotherapy, he helps patients, including those who have never played an instrument ...

More than 24,000 cancer cases have been confirmed since the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001.

And the story is as relevant today as ever.  Because new cases continue to come forward, and getting those cases officially recognised is an ongoing battle. A struggle made harder for those with English as a second language.

It's still a raw story to tell for the many who survived the attack and who are now...

As if cancer isn't enough, life throws menopause into the mix.  Not always, but it can trigger early onset.

And while we're at it let's increase the pressure on our already fragile mental health. 

So...one set of figures I read suggests 'For women under 40, the risk of premature menopause (from chemotherapy) is between 30–40%. For women 40 and older, the risk is greater than 80%.'  Now clearly, those figures depend on age, type of...

Fear of losing their job, of being a burden to colleagues but needing to work for all kinds of reasons.

Those worries are with someone right now, somewhere. The stark reality is too many businesses have no cancer awareness policy. Zero.  And so when a staff member is diagnosed, no one has a clue how to respond.

How to support them, how to talk to them even and certainly not introducing a cancer awareness policy that all staff can b...

Dr Liz O'Riordan, consultant breast cancer surgeon. She was highly respected in what is still largely a male-dominated arena. Now retired, not out of choice. Back in 2015, she was appointed consultant in oncoplastic surgery in Suffolk. Two years later it's Liz who hears the words, you have breast cancer.  And that's happened three times.

Now continuing her valuable work but this time through her books, substantial social media pres...

Turn Louth Pink. It just grew and grew...and grew.

This was just a bit of an idea. And then the parish church goes pink. Businesses bathe in pink, shop windows go pink, and another and another and...

Venues become day-long pink festivals of pink fun, friends hurriedly put together pink fundraisers in their homes.

It was a last-minute 'let's see what happens' moment from the Louth Run For Life charity in the small market town of Lou...

Can a book of cancer stories ever be positive? Uplifting?   Now maybe you're sceptical.  And if you are then it's my very great pleasure to say that you are wrong, big time.

Because this is a spectacularly positive book in so many ways even though the subject is not an easy one.

Kevin Donaghy has cancer.  And over some time he's part written and curated this book essentially told by those who have been there or continue to be so.

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Question! Did you know that a cancer diagnosis could mean your household bills increase by anything between £900 and £1,000 every month? That's in the UK and is likely far higher in many countries.

I said 'could' because clearly not everyone is affected in the same way.  But those numbers are real, not 'exaggerated-awe-headline-stuff' and have come as a genuine shock to many in the cancer sector.

Because here's the reality uncovere...

When Laura posted her first Stage 4 secondary cancer update on Facebook she couldn't have known what would happen next. It was originally intended to be a way to update her family and friends on her treatment.  But very quickly she noticed something unplanned and unexpected.

People from outside her circle were finding her on social media. She took her story across to Instagram and without any planning or marketing she quickly amass...