On this week’s episode, we’re talking to Olivia Clarke, founder of @humorbeatscancer and Stage 4 Breast Cancer fighter. Get ready to laugh in this episode with Olivia as she walks us through her initial diagnosis and where she’s at now in her cancer journey. Why and how she started Humor Beats Cancer, a nonprofit that promotes using humor and writing as coping tools for dealing with cancer.

We also talk about how relationships can change with a cancer diagnosis and how finding people that understand and support you through your cancer journey is so important. Olivia explains why she targets cancer patients in their 20s-40s with Humor Beats Cancer and how providing a safe space for people to vent, tell their own stories and laugh is so powerful.

Olivia, Maddy and Shannon all share their own funny stories during their cancer experiences. You can follow and learn how to get involved with Humor Beats Cancer on their Instagram @humorbeatscancer.

Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to this podcast!

It’s just Maddy on the show today but she’s here with Maddie Miles and we’re SO excited to have her! Maddie is a hormone specialist, female health activist, clinical herbalist and founder of Peace Love Hormones and creator of Soothe, an herbal remedy that helps with PMS symptoms and balancing hormones.

Maddie gives us so much information around her own health struggles with an eating disorder and how that led her to creating a career in helping women take back control of their menstrual health. She talks through the balance of Western and Eastern medicine, how stress and trauma from cancer (or anything else) affects our hormones and what we can do to balance them and how supporting gut health and optimizing our nutrition can help with regulating hormones. We also touch on effects of hormonal birth control, being your own advocate and SO MUCH MORE!

Maddie also talks about Soothe, the herbal remedy she created to help supplement women’s health and balance their hormones. Maddie is truly incredible and is helping to change the way we think about our hormones as women.

You can follow Maddie on Instagram @themaddiemiles. She is also the host of the Peace Love Hormones podcast and you can purchase Soothe on www.peacelovehormones.com.

Follow us to keep up with our guests @canceractuallysuckspod! 

We’re back and are having a little catch up on the pod this week. We talk about Shannon’s move to San Diego, how she’s settling in and finding community in a new place. Maddy talks about her plans for traveling this Summer, taking a break from social media and her current coaching programs.

We both talk through our views on Roe v Wade being overturned, how setting boundaries with social media is super important for our overall health and when to know if you may need to take a little break. We also talk through future plans for the pod, building more of a community around it with all of our listeners and connect more with all of you!

Keep up with our episodes and guests on Instagram @canceractuallysuckspod and please rate, review and subscribe!!

In this week's episode we're speaking with Koy Connors! Koy was diagnosed with Testicular Cancer in May 2021 when he felt a lump on one of his testicles and went to the doctor to get it checked out right away. He walks us through with his cancer diagnosis process, his treatment plan, getting into remission and then having the cancer come back. Throughout his whole experience, he made sure to be his own advocate and call his doctors at any sign of things not feeling normal.

We also talk through the benefits and disadvantages to MyChart and seeing your results online, how he feels like a different person now and how cancer has positively impacted his life a year later. Koy also gives us insight into what helped him feel like himself during chemo, finding gratitude in the little things and the importance of being your own advocate as much as you can.

You can follow Koy on Instagram at @koy3737 and keep up with us and our guests on Instagram @canceractuallysuckspod!

This week’s guest is Christina Bowers! Christina was diagnosed with Leukemia at 11 years old, and is now 33 and cancer free! Christina talks us through her symptoms when she first felt something wasn’t right in her body, how her parents and older sister supported her as a young kid going through cancer, having to switch schools while going through treatment and how it was really difficult to open up to other kids.

She also opens up about being really self conscious as a young pre-teenage girl going through cancer and not having hair and how her mental health was affected by that. Christina talks about how now as an adult she’s beginning to process things and has become more in touch with her body, how she has noticed certain things trigger anxiety like alcohol, and her journey moving through and coping with all of it now 20 years later.

Now Christina prioritizes self care as much as she can, and explains how having a routine is super helpful for her mental health. In her early 20s she also started getting into yoga and eating cleaner, and explains how these practices has impacted her mental, emotional and physical health for the better.

You can follow Christina on Instagram @tinivessel, and keep up with us and our guests on our Instagram and Facebook @canceractuallysuckspod. You can follow Maddy @cancersurvivor_nutritioncoach and Shannon @shancury

Get ready for some giggles this week on the pod! Maddy and Shannon have a solo episode and are talking all things chemo! First, Shannon shares her experience with R-EPOCH, how she had to do all of her treatments in the hospital, her regimen before going and what she packed for the hospital, the side effects she experienced and how being in the hospital during Covid was for her.

Maddy’s up next sharing her experience with ABVD, finding a post-chemo regimen that worked for her, preparing for the first chemo treatment, her side effects from chemo, what the two weeks in between chemo treatments looked like and her favorite ways to stay distracted and busy during treatment.

We hope these tips are helpful for anyone that’s preparing or currently going through chemo treatment, and of course that our stories bring some laughs!

**Disclaimer: We are not healthcare professionals, please do not take any medical advice from this podcast and always check with your doctor. 

On this week’s episode Maddy and Shannon are talking to Matt Fumo, a spinal cord injury survivor and son of a Stage 4 Squamous Cell Carcinoma Survivor. To start the episode, Shannon and Maddy give a quick update and both have some exciting news to share! As they dive into the conversation with Matt, he discusses more details about how injury and how it happened, how medical professionals told him he would never walk again, growing up with a dad with cancer and where his dad is now in his cancer journey, and how him and his dad got even closer as they both had gone through life threatening medical occurrences.

Matt also talks about his recovery after his accident and how seeing his dad fight and push through cancer, made him fight even harder for the ability to walk again. We also discuss the mind-body connection in relation to spinal cord injuries and cancer, and how it’s so important. Matt is beyond inspiring, he fully recovered from his injury and is now training for a triathlon!!

You can follow Matt on Instagram @mattfumo and keep up with us and our guests @canceractuallysuckspod. Follow Maddy on Instagram @cancersurvivor_nutritioncoach & Shannon @shancury!

This week’s episode we’re talking to Rian Harvey, who was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) at age 14 in 2013. He first found out something was wrong when he felt that he was becoming less active and social in his teenage years and was having horrible pain in his leg. Rian explains how he finally found out what was going on in his body and his journey to diagnosis, dealing with an intense and risky surgery, his journey through chemo, going through cancer as a teenager, and how he hadn’t really processed his cancer experience until the pandemic 7 years later when life slowed down.

Rian also touches on how him starting to process his cancer experience caused him to want to give back to the cancer community in order to help other people feel less alone and remind them that they can get through anything. He also started The L Card, an online community and podcast to connect cancer patients and survivors with one another. Rian is truly amazing, we teared up as he was speaking with us and we can’t wait for you all to listen and be inspired by his story!

You can follow Rian on Instagram @thelcard_rh and check out his podcast The L Card anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Follow us and keep up with our guests on Instagram @canceractuallysuckspod, @shancury and @cancersurvivor_nutritioncoach!

On this week’s episode, Shannon and Maddy are speaking with Trauma Informed Psychotherapist, Jacklynne Marder. We start out the episode catching up, talking through why we wanted to speak with Jacklynne in the first place, and some of our experience dealing with trauma and PTSD after cancer treatment.

Throughout the episode, Jacklynne explains how trauma affects our physical body and nervous system, why trauma stays in our bodies, ways to recognize your triggers and how to reduce anxiety around it. We also discuss why during treatment we may not start to process the trauma of cancer and our diagnoses until after treatment is over.

To reach out to Jacklynne or keep up with her, follow on Instagram @heartfeltmantras and check out her website jacklynnemardercounseling.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook to keep with us and our guests @canceractuallysuckspod. And follow Maddy @cancersurvivor_nutritioncoach and Shannon @shancury!

We’re back with Season 2 and so excited to welcome our new co-host Shannon Cury!! Shannon is a 30 year old Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma survivor and has been out of treatment and cancer free for officially 1 year today! We talk about anxiety after treatment, how just because treatment is over your cancer journey isn’t, scanxiety, PTSD, grief over your previous self and so much more!

Shannon also gives an update on what she’s been up to over the past year, how her life is different now after cancer and how finding HypnoBreathwork has made a huge impact on her life and career. Maddy also gives an update on what she’s been up since the latest episode and what to expect on Season 2 of Cancer Actually F***ing Sucks!

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook to keep with us and our guests @canceractuallysuckspod. Follow Maddy @cancersurvivor_nutritioncoach and Shannon @shancury135!