Helen Skelton is a psychotherapist and campaigner who lives with secondary breast cancer. In this episode, Helen talks in depth with Laura about grief. How grief isn’t just about losing someone, but about the loss of anything; your hair, your body image, your friendships, the life you hoped you’d have.

Drawing on her own experience, Helen shares the grief she’s experienced as part of her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, and how that grief extends to losing friends in the breast cancer community she’s a part of. She also promotes acceptance of grief and anger as emotions that should be recognised and lived with, and shares some outlooks that may help others see their grief in a new light.

You can find Helen on Instagram @secondary.psych

You can read Helen's writing on Substack

If you'd like to find out more about Breast Cancer Now's support services, visit the Breast Cancer Now website or phone our free helpline on 0808 800 6000 (UK only).

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Key Topics:

2:08 Helen is diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020

5:51 Dealing with a cancer diagnosis during COVID

8:22 Living with secondary breast cancer

10:39 Getting a primary and secondary breast cancer diagnosis at the same time

16:35 There's more to grief than just the dictionary definition

23:19 Grief as a result of a cancer diagnosis

25:49 Processing the grief from losing someone to the same disease you have

29:17 Helen attends a grief retreat

33:09 What is grief tending?

34:05 Discussing rage and anger, and how to come to terms with them

37:29 Why it's important to talk about emotions and feelings

41:27 Helen shares tips and techniques for coping with grief

46:14 Emotional triggers can cause you to reevaluate and make different decisions

53:38 What it means to Helen to "live well"