Combating Cancer

Season Two, Episode 5- Show Notes: Gwen Kelly shares how, years after finishing treatment for stage three astrocytoma brain cancer diagnosed at nineteen, her life is still shaped by recurring MRIs every 90 days and the anxiety, loneliness, and mental "waiting" that accompany survivorship. She describes how cancer rapidly upends independence, schedules, priorities, and identity, and emphasizes that...

Season Two, Episode 4- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly, a stage three astrocytoma survivor, interviews Adriana Lobo, who was diagnosed in February last year with a rare, aggressive cervical cancer: gastric type HPV-independent adenocarcinoma discovered after an unexpected abnormal Pap smear, first seen via a patient portal report. Adriana describes stress from delays in finding the right doctor and th...

Season Two, Episode 3- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly of Combating Cancer, diagnosed at 19 with stage three astrocytoma brain cancer and now nearly five years out, describes feeling unexpectedly alone even when surrounded by loving family, friends, and her fiancé. She explains this isn't loneliness from lacking people, but from others being unable to fully enter the parts of her cancer experience, es...

Season Two, Episode 2- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly, a stage three astrocytoma brain cancer survivor, welcomes Alex Fenn for Breast Cancer Awareness Month to discuss Alex's breast cancer journey and life after treatment. Alex shares finishing four rounds of TC chemotherapy (Taxotere and Cytoxan) and starting a 10-year daily medication regimen due to hormone-positive cancer that induces medical meno...

Season Two, Episode 1- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly introduces season two of the Combating Cancer podcast and reflects on how it began from her own experience of being diagnosed with a brain tumor at 19 after a grand mal seizure on March 6, 2022. She recounts emergency imaging, learning the diagnosis before her father arrived, and undergoing an eight-hour surgery with Dr. Grant, followed by patholo...

Episode 73- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly introduces Combating Cancer and reflects on being diagnosed with stage three astrocytoma brain cancer at 19 and nearly five years out, exploring how cancer can shrink life into appointments and survival. She argues that while getting through treatment can be enough, people eventually need purpose—small reasons that make tomorrow matter—and should keep "pouri...

Episode 72- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly shares her experience navigating diet advice during cancer treatment, clarifying the episode isn't a claim that keto cured cancer or that diet doesn't matter, but a personal account. Diagnosed at 19 with stage three astrocytoma brain cancer, she tried a ketogenic diet during 30 days of proton radiation after her radiation oncologist mentioned some patients f...

Episode 71- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly reflects on how answering "What do you do?" often leads to disclosing her stage three astrocytoma brain cancer diagnosis at nineteen and watching people's perception shift into pity, shock, and questions. She describes cancer unexpectedly surfacing in ordinary moments like a routine physical and coaching tennis, even though she no longer looks like she's in...

Episode 70- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly explores the assumption that cancer must "feel" like something, sharing that she had Stage 3 astrocytoma brain cancer at 19 while feeling completely normal. She recounts years of chronic back pain starting at 15, multiple spine MRIs that showed nothing, and the exhaustion of having real pain without an explanation. On March 6, 2022, she had a grand mal seizu...

Episode 69- Show Notes: Gwen Kelly, host of "Combating Cancer," reflects on how surviving stage three astrocytoma brain cancer diagnosed at nineteen changed her relationship with time and planning. After treatment, she lived independently, paid bills, and made only minimum loan payments while largely avoiding long-term planning because she didn't know if cancer would return, even as those years br...

Episode 68- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly, diagnosed with stage three astrocytoma at 19, reflects five years later on telling her fiancé Jake she feels she has "lost" her merit to talk about cancer, and his pushback helps her reframe survivorship. She describes feeling like a poser as cancer is no longer her everyday life, and wrestles with becoming the "on the other side" person she once couldn't r...

Episode 67- Show Notes: Gwen Kelly, host of Combating Cancer, recounts receiving MRI results via a patient portal 40 minutes before her appointment at Allina Health and reading alarming language about a lesion and urgent follow-up, leading her to cry alone in a bathroom stall while trying to hide it from her dad. She connects this to first learning she had stage three astrocytoma brain cancer at 1...

Episode 66- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly of Combating Cancer shares that her latest scans were stable with no evidence of disease and explains what "scan day" is like for her as a stage III astrocytoma survivor on a 90-day MRI cycle. She walks through her routine from the night before (removing jewelry) to the early Monday morning hospital visit with her dad, intake paperwork, changing into a gown...

Episode 65- Show Notes: In this delayed birthday episode of Combating Cancer, host Gwen Kelly, diagnosed with Stage 3 astrocytoma brain cancer at 19, shares the list she wishes someone had handed her in that hospital room: 24 things five years of survivorship taught her before turning 24. She walks through what nobody prepares you for, from a brain tumor diagnosis that may never come with the word...

Episode 64- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly, diagnosed with stage three astrocytoma at 19, welcomes 14-year-old Onnaka Gerloff, who was diagnosed with astrocytoma brain and spine cancer at age seven. Onnaka shares her current life as a high school sophomore and volleyball team manager because she can't play contact sports, and her interest in becoming a child life specialist to support patients throug...

Episode 63- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly, diagnosed with stage three astrocytoma brain cancer at 19, reflects on something she's noticed in herself over the past couple of years: cancer didn't make her less compassionate, but it did teach her that emotional capacity is finite. Gwen explains that trauma resets your baseline — even on good days, a quiet background fear about the next scan never fully...

Episode 62- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly, diagnosed with stage three astrocytoma at 19, welcomes Anna Monastero to Combating Cancer to discuss young-adult cancer, advocacy, and navigating treatment. Anna, diagnosed at 29 with rare, terminal heart angiosarcoma on October 7, shares seeking multiple second opinions (including Memorial Sloan Kettering) and the challenges of finding specialists for angi...

Episode 61- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly, diagnosed with stage three astrocytoma brain cancer at 19, reflects on a message from a terminally ill girl that the scariest part isn't dying but that people stop talking about the future, making every goodbye feel final. Gwen explains that patients already carry heavy physical and emotional burdens, and that loved ones' unspoken fear—hesitation, pity, avo...

Episode 60- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly welcomes caregiver Rick Osteen to Combating Cancer to share his experience supporting his wife through a colon cancer diagnosis and treatment. Rick discusses navigating radiation and chemotherapy, advocating during medical appointments, the emotional weight of caregiving, and the challenges of the healthcare system. Grounded in his Christian faith, he reflec...

Episode 59- Show Notes: In this solo episode, Gwen Kelly opens up about a topic that has been weighing heavily on her heart: bullying and cruelty toward people facing cancer. Drawing from stories she's heard throughout the cancer community, as well as her own experience as a young adult diagnosed with stage three astrocytoma brain cancer, Gwen explores the difference between ignorance and intentio...

Episode 58- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly, a stage three astrocytoma survivor diagnosed at 19, welcomes 16-year-old Riley Polster, whom she met through TikTok and who shares the same diagnosis. Riley recounts her journey from months of headaches and a chronic migraine diagnosis to the discovery of a large brain tumor requiring emergency surgery. She opens up about her fears, her family's reaction, t...

Episode 57- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly, a stage three astrocytoma brain cancer survivor diagnosed at 19, explains she created Combating Cancer to offer a safe, honest space for those affected by cancer. She shares why she stopped drinking six months ago: alcohol didn't create her fears but uncovered lingering trauma, triggering spirals about mortality, recurrence, survivor's guilt, and anxious th...

Episode 56- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly, diagnosed with stage three astrocytoma at 19, welcomes Bron Watson from Australia to Combating Cancer to discuss creating a safe, honest space for people affected by cancer. Bron, a nurse, educator, and business mentor with five sons, shares her breast cancer diagnosis in 2017 that led to a rapid full mastectomy and later her 2023 diagnosis of incurable mul...

Episode 55- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly introduces Combating Cancer and shares her stage three astrocytoma diagnosis at 19, explaining the podcast's goal of creating a safe, honest space for anyone affected by cancer. Building on a prior episode about anticipatory grief, she describes grieving not only the fear of death but the fear of losing her identity and being seen only as "the girl with brai...

Episode 54- Show Notes: Host Gwen Kelly, a stage III astrocytoma brain cancer survivor, welcomes 22-year-old Megan McCoy, whom she met on TikTok, to discuss how cancer affected her family. Megan shares that her mother was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer when Megan was 16 during COVID after a missed mammogram, later developing spine and liver metastases, and died in January 2023; Megan descri...