#CancerCanDoOne podcast

'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 that conversation. But it would be great if that patient - and we must never forget the caregiver - had a safe space to hear 'I bet this is really challenging for you. How are you feeling..?'
So...what do I say to a cancer patient and the caregiver..?
 
 

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 looking for a voice and support. So we'll refresh our memory with just a few of the conversations over our part of 2024.
Three topics came up again and again in social media chats - breast cancer, prostate and menopause. And I suspect the same will apply in 2025.
 
Music: #Uppbeat : License code: OV4JX0OUSXKVGKIK. Additional music by kind permission of Alphonso Archer
#cancercandoone #cancerconversation #HER2 #HER2breastcancer #cancerstories #breastcancer #cancerawareness #cancerresearchuk #louthrunforlfe #cancerpodcast #cancermaverick #oncologist  

 
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 - and a very long list of other questions - need to get non-sugarcoated facts from the best.
And one of the world leaders in the field - particularly in breast cancer - is UK-based, Dr Hugo De La Peña, MD, PHD, FRCP. Cancer Research UK Ambassador and Maggie's Clinical Lead.
As Hugo says “Lifetime commitment: cure cancer in every patient”
And here's how, for the most part, he's doing precisely that...
Another download listening 20 minutes you won't regret.
The #CancerCanDoOne podcast from Louth Run For Life.
 
Hugo's website
https://www.drhugodelapena.com/
 
Music: #Uppbeat : License code: OV4JX0OUSXKVGKIK
#cancercandoone #cancerconversation #HER2 #HER2breastcancer #cancerstories #breastcancer #cancerawareness #cancerresearchuk #louthrunforlfe #cancerpodcast #cancermaverick #oncologist  
 

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 highly skilled photographer, had no idea what she was doing initially. Anna's original idea was to capture memories for their little boy - just in case.
But now the couple, who live with their son in Brooklyn, New York, have just published their photographic story as a remarkable book titled, 'HER2, The Diagnosed, The Caregiver And Their Son'. And it's already attracting huge media acclaim around the world.
It's a visual story, unaffected by language barriers, to illustrate the real, unfiltered story of #cancerunder50.
Find out more here.
https://www.rathkopf.com/personal-projects/her2
 
Remember please 'FOLLOW' this podcast.  It helps me spread the cancer conversation - and we both know how much that's needed.
 

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 before, to create music that means so much, particularly those facing end-of-life... 
Once again, hands up, this was a subject I had no idea was even a thing until a few weeks ago. And the music you're about to hear, recorded by a cancer patient who had never touched a musical instrument before Alphonso pressed the record button is...well...moving and simply extraordinary.
 

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 facing cancer.  When the first plane hit, Will Rivera was a teenager waiting for a school bus in Lower Manhattan. He lived near the towers.
By the age of 30, he had a tumour.
Will spoke to me from his home in New York State. He's rarely talked about this because of the trauma. But he's refocused and now doing all he can to speak out and to help those caught in the cancer communication trap...  
 

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 cancer and a whole load of variables. But...no consolation if it's you.
Is this a subject still not talked about openly in the wider community and exactly what help is out there for women facing or going through this horrible mix today..?
Time to hear about a project from the Every-One charity in the UK  being developed and tested over three years that will not only meet the challenge head-on but - crucially - involve patients in its development...
A project that in time, could - possibly be replicated elsewhere.  
 
 

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 benefit from in the long term.
Basically, we're still not having that conversation at work.  And that breeds uncertainty and ignorance.
Sharron Moffatt is a mental health trainer and a supercharged workplace cancer support ambassador.  And she's currently in treatment for triple-positive breast cancer.
It's that work-based cancer conversation that is seriously overdue in her opinion and needs to happen now...as she explains to Mike...
 

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 presence and TV work.  She has a new book out in January next year. She is one very busy, in-demand woman.  When Liz speaks, people listen...and they don't always agree, as you'll hear.
A champion of evidence and truth, she's faced extraordinary levels of online bullying and death threats for challenging potentially damaging, misleading cancer opinions.
But it's been quite a journey to get back to being Liz again - the woman she recognised after such a long and gruelling time.
And that new identity was shaped by one promise and one colour - yellow.  This is Dr Liz O'Riordan...
 

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 Louth in Lincolnshire in the UK, that became an unstoppable fundraising force. Almost 12,000 pounds raised last October.
And all for breast cancer awareness.
Unsurprisingly they're doing it again this October and so are other Cancer Research UK groups inspired by... Turn Louth Pink, as Mike discovers now...