Blog

“Tordre le cou au crabe.” To wring the crab’s neck. It’s one of those wonderfully French expressions that sounds faintly ridiculous until you know what it means. According to Dr Google, le crabe – the crab, is an old colloquial term for cancer. The word itself can be traced back to the Ancient Greek karkinos,…… Continue reading A Tango With Cancer

Changing cancer care doesn’t happen at an awards ceremony. The real work continues when the applause stops. It happens in the conversations afterwards. In the communities we build. In the people we refuse to give up on. In the ideas we’re brave enough to explore. In the hope we keep alive when things feel hopeless.…… Continue reading Awards Are Important – but Monday Matters More

and why boundaries must become part of your healing. Some people disappeared. Some betrayed me. Others showed up in ways I’ll never forget. Here’s what illness taught me about friendship, boundaries and how to know who deserves a place in your life. Last Friday, I received stacks of calls, messages, cards, gifts and donations to…… Continue reading Cancer Shows You Who Stays

What a weekend. On Friday, we won the Wellbeing Charity Award at The Platinum Awards – for the second year running. We won. Again. The Platinum Awards judges: On Saturday, we went to the next village and watched go-karts in glorious sunshine. On Sunday, we celebrated our eldest daughter’s first wedding anniversary. Three days. Three…… Continue reading Survivor Guilt: When Being Alive Feels Like Something to Apologise For

On friendship, grief, bad influences, good women and the people who turn up when life gets ugly.

The reality behind the holidays, hospital stays and hope. Our Stage 4’ers are having a tough time right now. We’ve been following their lives since we first met them in February, and it’s been fascinating, inspiring, heartbreaking – and, at times, brutally real. Our first article was a reality check: young, seemingly healthy women are being diagnosed…… Continue reading The Bit They Don’t Show You: Life with Stage 4

We learned from all three. We respected their expertise (and still do). So why did we remove their work from our health resource? When integrity matters more than expertise, reputation, or influence. Yesterday, we removed yet another physician from this website. Thankfully, there are many left. This is the third physician we have removed in as many months.…… Continue reading Three Doctors We Could No Longer Endorse

Maybe we don’t have to wait for perfect What if this is as good as it gets? What if it’s not? Now isn’t perfect. But what is? I don’t even know what’s triggered this peace. I don’t know why the realisation that now is all we actually have just hit me. But it has. And perhaps that’s…… Continue reading What if “now” is “the” time?

What happens when a cancer patient stops feeling like a prognosis and starts feeling like a person again? “Could you speak with one of my clients? She’s been given three months to live, and this is what she is thinking of doing.” That message landed in my inbox from one of our Double-Zero mental health contributors a…… Continue reading Told She Had 3 Months to Live. Hope Had Other Ideas.

When men talk about cancer Nothing to do with a male version of the phenomenally successful Boots the Chemist Christmas tagline…. It’s all to do with: Four men. Four cancers. Four extraordinary stories of agency, resilience, and survivorship. Who all said an empathic Yes to Life. Cancer can be an incredibly lonely place. For many men,…… Continue reading Here Come The Boys