July 2014. A Wednesday afternoon in a Waseda materials lab on the industrial northern edge of Kyushu. The phone rang with a Taiwan country code. The man on the line said his father had been told there was nothing more to do, that someone had found a cancer vaccine trial at Kurume University, and that the family needed an interpreter. I had never done medical interpretation. I said yes. I needed the money — that was the whole of it.

In this episode: the first phone call, Kurume University, materials engineering, becoming an interpreter by accident.

Contact: medicalsupporter.org | shingihou.com | [email protected]

⚠️ Personal reflections only. Not medical practice, diagnosis, or treatment advice. Please consult your physician. Names have been changed.