Cancer Can Do One: Life After Cancer Treatment

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 insecurity that can follow when treatment ends and healthcare professionals step back — the dreaded “Now what?” moment too many people face alone.

We explore how cancer can pull families closer together, the small ways laughter helps survive fear, and the challenges of navigating life when the system goes quiet. This conversation is raw, honest, and occasionally darkly funny — a real insight into a family living with cancer in a way most of us can barely imagine.

⏱️ Timestamps:

[00:58] Intro – Why this family’s story is so rare

[03:41] Anthony’s family journey – how cancer brought the five siblings closer. Humour as survival.

[05:58] Need to talk – when even they NEED to talk it through together.

[13:08] When the system goes quiet – the loneliness after treatment ends. How for Anthony it lead to deep depression.

About the guest:

Trigger warning:

👉  If this episode resonates, share it with a friend who thinks cancer is never going to affect them. Who cares? Follow the show for more off-grid, human takes on life with cancer.

#BreakTheCancerSilence #CancerCanDoOne

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 priorities. How workaholism gave way to presence. How fear gave way to clarity. How facing mortality didn’t just change his life—it improved him as a man, a father, and a human being.

If you’ve ever wondered what it means to live, not just survive, this episode is absolutely for you—for anyone who needs courage to say, “There has to be more to life.”

Listen in for a story of resilience, reinvention, and redefining what matters most.

Tony has no intention of making the same mistakes again...

#CancerCanDoOne #ProstateCancer #CancerAwareness  #BreakingTheSilence  #SexualHealth #CancerConversation

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 night.

Her life is on hold—not from a lack of love, but from a system that didn’t look, so didn’t find.

In this episode, Beverley speaks for every parent trapped in the aftermath of a diagnosis that came too late.

This isn’t just a story. It’s a warning.

#BrainTumourAwareness #DelayedDiagnosis #CancerStories #PatientAdvocacy #SeizureAwareness 

#WhenTheyDontLookTheyDontFind #InvisibleImpact #CancerCanDoOne #CancerConversation #BreakTheSilence

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.

But this isn’t a story of helplessness — it’s about grit, workarounds, and refusing to give up, even when the system makes it hard. Sarah sees a future in the growing number of educated and engage young people who are more than prepared to stay and fight to make cancer care a right and not an option.

#cancercandoone #cancerinafrica #cancerawareness #cancerincameroon

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 it works

The silence, stigma, and loneliness that medicine can’t fix

Why geography can still decide who lives and who dies—even in a wealthy countryIf you’ve ever wondered how culture, systems, and humanity collide when cancer strikes, this episode will change how you see it.

👉 If this resonates, please follow the show and leave a quick rating—it helps others find these voices who deserve to be heard.

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 cancer...

That was 12 years ago and now after a double mastectomy her life has moved on and cancer is her life in a positive way.  Today, Sarah runs a training company called Elephant In The Room that helps workplaces better support staff going through cancer.

In this episode, she shares her story — one of deep pain, growth, and ultimately, purpose. It’s a conversation about what it means to heal, to forgive, and to turn something incredibly difficult into something meaningful.

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Elephant In The Room Training:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/eitrtraining/posts/?feedView=all 

Follow Mike on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikekinnaird?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app

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 hard evidence of what was happening.

Good job he did.  Andy wasn't tired. He hadn't realised his 'fatigue' was bowel cancer...

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Connect with Mike on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikekinnaird/

For more details of Andy's book:

https://troubador.co.uk/bookshop/self-help/didnt-anyone-ever-tell-you-its-all-a-game

Or contact Andy personally:

[email protected]

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 - even that of some charities - Invariably shows a white woman at a breast screening clinic. Rarely are those stock photos of a woman from black or Asian communities.

What exactly are those women supposed to think if they don’t recognise themselves thanks to lazy and potentially dangerous content? Why would they..?

Cancer presents itself differently, not all doctors know what to look for because it’s different to white skin, the images, culture, jargon and language - it’s a horrible mix of barriers that is still putting lives at risk. Which all sounds like a cliche mix until you talk with Dr Olubukola Ayodele.

Bookie, as she calls herself, is a Consultant Medical Oncologist and heads the Breast Cancer Unit at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust in the UK. It’s a large, strong ethnic community. She’s also Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Leicester. And along with very many published achievements and collaborations, she also sits on the European Cancer Organisation Inequalities Network.

Bottom line is. She’s tired of women being diagnosed too late because no one told them what cancer awareness actually means to them.

So, if anyone recognises the frustration, the inequality, the danger and the scale of the mountain still to climb, it’s Bookie Ayodele. She needs support herself - to get accurate information out there. There's a great deal to take in. Collectively, we can't keep ignoring this.  You can help right now by downloading and sharing this episode.

Because the messaging on all sides is clearly very badly wrong.

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More on Bookie Ayodele's research profile.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Olubukola-Ayodele-2

#breastcancer #breastcancerawareness #ethniccancer #ethniccommunity #cancervoice #cancerdisparity

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.  There must be a better way?

They had no idea they were about to create a lasting legacy with a series of bright, engaging cards which both parents and health professionals have raved about. The two friends had something else in common. 

They were both married, had small children themselves and they had breast cancer. 

Nic's husband Mat Owen picks up the story of that legacy that became - 'The Little C Club'.

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Find out more about the Little C Club here:

Website:  Littlecclub.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelittlecclub?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

Facebook:

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 together every single day.

It would be difficult to better this in many ways.

And then life took hold. Out of nowhere, unwelcome, unannounced, it came with sheer vindictiveness.  In Dale's case it had been strongly hinting for some time that it had earmarked him for challenges that would break most people in days. Creeping up, its intentions unidentified.

And then it happened. And it happened with a speed and force the rest of us could never comprehend. Dale’s partner, diagnosed with cancer. Dale is diagnosed. His mum dies. And this happens in a matter of weeks.

The race was on to consume as much information, research, knowledge and science as possible, as quickly as possible. Hundreds upon hundreds of documents, trials and errors.

This is Dale Atkinson’s story…

#cancercandoone #cancerawareness #cancerbattle #cancerfight #louthrunforlife #cancerresearchuk #cancerconversation #familylife #youngfamily #familystrength