#CancerCanDoOne podcast

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 healthcare actually feels like when...

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 sent for a scan.

She had breast ca...

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 go to the doctor he could present h...

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 much of the online and print media - e...

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...