#CancerCanDoOne. After Awareness, Then What?

It's got that reputation hasn't it?  Switzerland runs like clockwork. Gold standard everything that leaves the rest of us, well, runners-up. I've spoken now to so many people in so many different countries who all say post cancer treatment is basically a shambles. Country after country - the support that was your cancer patient life, gone in an instant. Yep. Gone. End. You fall off a cliff. So thi...

    Toby Freeman founded the Robin Cancer Trust at 22 after losing his brother Rob to testicular cancer. Rob was 24, fit, healthy, and had been to the doctors multiple times. Sadly no-one connected the dots until it was too late. What followed was fourteen years of talking — loudly, honestly, sometimes in a giant testicle costume — about the things young people aren't told and the conversations th...

There's a side effect of cancer treatment that affects millions of people every year. It's permanent. It's devastating. And many patients, it seems, aren't told about it before treatment begins. I had no idea this was happening. None. And I've been asking questions about cancer care for long enough that I should probably have known. Anna Kirton is a Health Coach and Hearing Loss Advocate. She was...

Dr Liz O'Riordan is a consultant breast surgeon who got breast cancer. Three times. She knows the system from both sides of the table — the clinician giving the diagnosis in a 10 minute appointment, and the patient navigating what comes after. She's also not afraid to push back. In this conversation Liz challenges some of the assumptions that run through everything I do. She defends the National H...

We've known smoking causes cancer for 70 years. People still smoke. We are "cancer aware."  So when did it all just become a noise? We know what cancer patients need after treatment ends. We don't fund it. So what's the point of awareness? Dr. Hugo De La Pena is a consultant medical oncologist in Southampton who's made unusual choices. He works full-time NHS in the UK with no private practice - re...

Tessa Parry-Wingfield is a journalist and global communications expert—skilled at finding information, building communities, creating content. Then she was diagnosed with ocular melanoma. Eye cancer. Most people have never heard of it. It affects 5 per million adults and roughly 600 cases annually in the UK - Tessa lives in London. And in her case, everything changed in less than three weeks. She'...

When treatment ended, Sanna Tiensuu-Piirainen was told: "You're cancer-free. Good luck." Then she was lost. And of course we know that's not a unique situation. By some distance. But the real question that came out of this cancer conversation was: has discrimination ended her career because she's open about her cancer when talking to employers? Sanna was diagnosed with breast cancer at 43 in Finla...

The diary is empty. No more scans. No more treatment. That's it. You're good. So why do so many cancer patients feel depressed, abandoned and lost when surely it's time to celebrate?  In a first for #CancerCanDoOne, we eavesdrop on a brutally revealing conversation. This is the real and honest view of what breast cancer days are like and crucially what happens when the treatment ends. Because trea...

"I sat in the car for half an hour and cried."  His first thought; how will his new wife cope with this news? He was 30 years old with a life built on fitness and nutrition. He felt very alone. There weren’t many role models for young men facing cancer. Now, others reach out to him for advice — not about lifting weights, but about carrying the weight of a diagnosis. In this episode: How he went fr...

What happens when cancer doesn’t just hit one person, but an entire family? In this episode I speak with Anthony McLoughlin, one of five siblings who were all diagnosed with cancer before the age of 60 — a staggering and highly unusual family experience. Anthony shares how his family uses humour to cope, rarely talking about cancer unless it’s truly needed. He opens up about the loneliness and ins...

Tony Collier had it all—or so he thought. In his 60s, he was the embodiment of drive: building a business, checking every box for success, and clocking 60–70-hour workweeks. Then came the diagnosis: incurable prostate cancer. Life as he knew it stopped—and in its wake, something unexpected emerged. In this powerful, unfiltered conversation, Tony tells us how cancer forced a deep reordering of his...

Beverley is a mum to Jake, a thirty-something who still lives at home—not because of choice, but because a missed brain tumour diagnosis changed both their lives forever. For months, doctors searched for the wrong answers. Migraines. Epilepsy. Anything but the tumour that was slowly taking hold. Today, Jake lives with seizures. Beverley lives on permanent alert. Every noise. Every bump in the nigh...

What happens when you’re diagnosed with cancer but the nearest treatment is hundreds of miles away — and there’s no radiotherapy machine? When the cost of the most basic of treatment is way beyond what your community can afford. In this episode, I speak with a quietly remarkable oncologist working in Cameroon. Dr. Sarah Adiang Mouelle explains what cancer care looks like when equipment is scarce,...

What happens when cancer care is both the best—and the worst? In this honest, unfiltered conversation, Norwegian breast cancer survivor and doctor Patrycja Buxton (just not the medical kind) shares what it’s really like to go through a system that can be life-saving one day… and completely indifferent the next. We talk about: The shock of diagnosis in a country known for universal care What great...

She knew something wasn't right. At all. But getting her fears recognised took far longer than anticipated. Time and again this mum in her 30s who'd just had baby number three was told she should really concentrate on the baby and stop worrying about her breast.  But she went back to her doctor again and again only to hear the same response.  Finally out of frustration on all sides Sarah Drake was...

Tired versus fatigue. Big difference.  Did I know that? Absolutely not. Thankfully Andy Mullaney realised that his 'tiredness' wasn't just overdoing it, or Covid jab after effects or just getting the other side of 60 years old. It wasn't going away and he could sleep as long as you like and still feel exhausted. He documented what was happening for a few weeks and so did his wife. So when he did g...

Breasts are a private matter. Talking about them, touching them, exposing them to examination. Photograph them? No. Absolutely not comfortable with any of that. At all. That’s not what we do. And anyway. Breast cancer is a white woman problem  - so it doesn’t affect me, does it? Cultural conversations are just one part of the serious cancer conversation issue. The visual messaging relied on by muc...

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-an...

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...

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 opposi...

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 healthca...

'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...

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...

'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 necessari...

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...