REYL - Re Engineer Your Life

2:2 (2 in 2) Episode 2 | Prostate Cancer: My Side of the Table

Two people. Two cancers. One table.

In Episode 1, Rakima shared her breast cancer story. Now it's my turn.

I'm Ed from London. I'm 51, and I was diagnosed with prostate cancer on the 3rd of December 2024. Gleason score 7, T2 disease, which meant it hadn't yet left my prostate. I had a radical prostatectomy, radiotherapy, and I'm still on hormone treatment today.

Over a First Dates style conversation, Rakima asks me the questions men rarely get asked, and even more rarely answer honestly.

In this episode

• Hearing the words "you have prostate cancer"

• Cancer ghosting

• Mindset: competing with cancer

• How I told my kids

• The wrong diagnosis

• "I'm not the same person"

• Nerve sparing surgery, erections and intimacy

• Hormone treatment and radiotherapy

• Choosing your treatment

• Not being offered the same treatment

• Advice for men

Chapters

00:00 Intro

00:50 My diagnosis

02:33 Cancer ghosting

03:10 Mindset

03:35 Telling my kids

06:48 Wrong diagnosis

07:50 I'm not the same person

10:30 Reproductive health

11:12 Nerve sparing

11:49 Black men

12:25 Erections

12:45 What is intimacy?

13:31 Hormone treatment

14:30 Choose your treatment

15:24 Radiotherapy

16:05 Carnival

17:18 Profiled

18:45 Cancer, don't let it win

19:00 Jeff Thompson

19:50 Not offered the same treatment

21:15 Who would you see?

22:45 The Royal Marsden

22:50 Advice for men

23:58 Would you meet each other again?

Men, please hear this. 1 in 4 Black men in the UK will get prostate cancer in their lifetime. Early prostate cancer often has no symptoms. Don't wait. Speak to your GP and ask about a PSA test.

Support

Prostate Cancer UK: prostatecanceruk.org

Black Women Rising: blackwomenrisinguk.org

Thank you

My date: Rakima

Filmed at Fort Smokehouse, Norbury, London

Re Engineer Your Life

Website: re-engineer.uk

Substack: ed360.substack.com

If this helped you, share it with a man who needs to hear it. Subscribe for more honest conversations.

#2in2 #ReEngineerYourLife #ProstateCancer #ProstateCancerAwareness #MensHealth #BlackMensHealth #GetChecked #Movember #CancerSurvivor #Vulnerability

2:2 (2 in 2) | Breast Cancer and Prostate Cancer on a First DateTwo people. Two cancers. One table.In this special episode of Re Engineer Your Life, I sit down with Rhakima for a First Dates style conversation about life after cancer.

At 34, Rhakima was diagnosed with invasive grade 3 breast cancer on Valentine's Day 2022. A left sided mastectomy, six rounds of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and she's still on hormone therapy today. She calls herself a one boob wonder, a cancer thriver, and a one boob party.I share my own journey through prostate cancer, a prostatectomy and radiotherapy.

We talk honestly about the things most people won't: our bodies, intimacy, sex, dating again, and the question Rhakima is sick of hearing: "Can't you get it fixed?"

This is a conversation about vulnerability, confidence and what it really means to feel like a woman, and a man, after cancer.

In this episode• Diagnosis and the moment everything changed• Choosing not to reconstruct after a mastectomy• "Can't you get it fixed?"• Dating with one boob: Rhakima's social experiment• Why women of colour and men delay seeing a doctorSupportIf this conversation touched you, help is out there:Black Women Rising, supporting women of colour through cancer: blackwomenrisinguk.orgProstate Cancer UK: prostatecanceruk.orgThank youFilmed at Fort Smokehouse, Norbury, LondonWith love to Black Women RisingRe Engineer Your LifeWebsite: re-engineer.ukSubstack: ed360.substack.comLike, comment and share this with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for more honest conversations.

Conversations Black Men Were Never Taught To Have

No guest this time. Just me.

Principle 6 — Replace Negative Habits. You can't just stop. You must replace.

Most people hear that and think about the gym. The diet. Scrolling less. But what about the habits that nearly cost you everything? The ones you couldn't see clearly because you were inside them?

In this episode I get honest about my own story. What the habit was. What it was actually doing for me. What it cost before I did something about it. And what I put in its place.

The fellowship. The mat. The work that's still ongoing.

This is the most personal episode I've made.

IN THIS EPISODE:
— What the habit was and what it was really giving me
— When I knew it was a problem
— What it cost me before I asked for help
— What asking for help actually looked like
— Why BJJ — what the mat gave me that nothing else could
— You can't just stop — you must replace. What that means from the inside
— What I'm still working on

Re-Engineer Your Life is a podcast for high-achieving men navigating the gap between external success and internal reality. Each episode is built around one of 10 principles from the book Re-Engineer Your Life by Ed Brown.

🎙️ Hosted by Ed Brown — Broadcast Engineer. BJJ Black Belt. Father. Recovering Human.

Conversations Black men were never taught to have.

Aaron Dale — known as Raising Boys To Men — grew up without a father, became one, and built a movement of 600,000 people by being honest about how hard it was.

In this episode Ed Brown sits down with Aaron for Principle 5 of Re-Engineer Your Life: Embrace Vulnerability. They cover absent fathers and breaking the cycle, co-parenting when the wounds are still open, what vulnerability actually costs a man, the relationship between strength and healing, and the importance of black love.

This one hit different.

00:00 Introduction
02:46 Absent Fathers
15:30 Vulnerability is a threat — co-parenting, romance, dating and money
30:06 Going public with your co-parenting journey
34:00 Co-parenting when the wounds are open
40:33 Vulnerability vs strength
44:00 Healing the wound — the importance of black love
47:38 The Big Question

Conversatiovens Black Men Were Never Taught To Have

Ego builds careers. It also destroys the people behind them.

In this episode, I sit down with grime and tribal house pioneer DJ Mak10 to talk about Principle 4: Seek Professional Help — and the thing that stands between most men and that decision: ego.

The version of yourself you build to survive. The warning signs you ignore because admitting them feels like defeat. And what happens when you finally put the ego down and tell the truth.

All 10 principles: ed360.substack.com
More at www.re-engineer.uk

Conversations Black Men Were Never Taught To Have

Most men confuse routine with discipline.

They show up. Go through the motions. Tick the boxes. And wonder why nothing changes.

Gabriel Sey has built discipline across five different arenas — Army Cadets, professional American Football, motorsports engineering, competitive bodybuilding, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Known online as The Active Black Dad, he's built a platform of over 400,000 subscribers modelling fitness, fatherhood and consistency.

He's also the man I train BJJ with.

In this conversation, we go deep on Principle 3 — Practise Self-Discipline. Where it really comes from. What separates discipline driven by fear from discipline driven by genuine drive. And what the mat reveals that twenty years in other disciplines never could.

IN THIS EPISODE:
— Building discipline across five different worlds
— The difference between fear-driven and purpose-driven discipline
— What his fitness journey taught him about who he used to be
— Modelling discipline for his sons — and what he's still working on
— Routine vs discipline: the distinction most men miss

Re-Engineer Your Life is a podcast for high-achieving men navigating the gap between external success and internal reality. Each episode is built around one of 10 principles — honest conversations with men who've lived them.

Conversations Black Men Were Never Taught To Have

What does it actually take to set goals that change your life — not just your to-do list?

Ed Brown sits down with Patrick Hutchinson — activist, author, and one of the most recognisable faces of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement.

Patrick shares the mindset and discipline behind his journey, and why real goal-setting isn't about ambition alone — it's about identity, purpose, and the willingness to do the work when no one's watching.

If you've ever set a goal and fallen short, this conversation will show you why — and what to do differently.

RE-ENGINEER YOUR LIFE. The work starts here.

Conversations Black Men Were Never Taught To Have

In just 10.5 minutes, I’m going to re-wire how you view success.This video breaks down the three critical steps every man needs to understand to shift from pressure, comparison, and burnout… to purpose, clarity, and powerful self-leadership.Dropped on International Men’s Day, this message is for every man who knows he’s capable of more — not just in life, but in how he defines life.This is your moment to pause, recalibrate, and re-engineer your mindset.If you’re ready to build a life rooted in strength, accountability, integrity, and real success…you’re in the right place.