So Now I’ve Got Breast Cancer

Do you know what your legal rights are when returning to work after cancer? What should your employer do to help you get back to work? Do you have to say you’ve got cancer in a job interview? This episode is all about getting back to work with Barbara Wilson, the founder of the social enterprise Working with Cancer.

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You can find Working with Cancer on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/working-with-cancer

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workingwithcanceruk

Or head straight to their website: www.workingwithcancer.co.uk

You can also email them at: [email protected]

My amazing podcast poet is Donna Ashworth and you heard  a poem from her new book ‘Growing Brave’  - available now in all online bookstores. You can find out more about Donna on her website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook

Season Three was kindly sponsored by Breast Friends CIC – an organisation that truly understands the power of peer support for anyone on the breast cancer journey. Head over to www.breastfriends.co.uk to find out more. If you would like to sponsor Season Four, please get in touch at [email protected]. 

If you’ve got a question for the show, then please get in touch online or send me a voice note.  You can find me on social media  -  Instagram, X and Facebook. A special thanks goes to medical student Tamara Enthoven for helping me to collate all the questions.

You can also watch this episode! Head to my Youtube channel @DrLizORiordan to see this season’s episodes as they are released and lots of other useful videos full of reliable information. 

Subscribe to my monthly newsletter here to find out what I’ve been up to and what I’m recommending each month. 

And you can now pre-order my third book ‘The Cancer Roadmap’ (out January 2025), or buy the updated edition of my first book ‘The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer: How to Feel Empowered and Take Control’. Plus, if you’re nosey and want to find out more about my life, my memoir  ‘Under The Knife’ - is also available in all good bookshops.

Can changing your diet stop your cancer coming back? What does a healthy plate of food look like? Are probiotics worth the hype? This episode is all about what to eat after breast cancer treatment with Associate Professor Dr Krystle Zuniga. She’s a board certified oncology dietician with a PhD in nutritional sciences and a clinical cancer exercise specialist, and she puts out incredible posts on instagram to give us all sensible, evidence-based advice about what to eat after a cancer diagnosis.

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Krystle's website: www.cancernutritionhq.com

Follow Krystle on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cancernutritionhq

Here are the resources Krystle mentioned:

American Institute for Cancer – www.aicr.org

World Cancer Research Fund – www.wcrf.org

My amazing podcast poet is Donna Ashworth and you heard  a poem from her new book ‘Growing Brave’  - available now in all online bookstores. You can find out more about Donna on her website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook

Season Three was kindly sponsored by Breast Friends CIC – an organisation that truly understands the power of peer support for anyone on the breast cancer journey. Head over to www.breastfriends.co.uk to find out more. If you would like to sponsor Season Four, please get in touch at [email protected]. 

If you’ve got a question for the show, then please get in touch online or send me a voice note.  You can find me on social media  -  Instagram, X and Facebook. A special thanks goes to medical student Tamara Enthoven for helping me to collate all the questions.

You can also watch this episode! Head to my Youtube channel @DrLizORiordan to see this season’s episodes as they are released and lots of other useful videos full of reliable information. 

Subscribe to my monthly newsletter here to find out what I’ve been up to and what I’m recommending each month. 

And you can now pre-order my third book ‘The Cancer Roadmap’ (out January 2025), or buy the updated edition of my first book ‘The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer: How to Feel Empowered and Take Control’. Plus, if you’re nosey and want to find out more about my life, my memoir  ‘Under The Knife’ - is also available in all good bookshops.

Is your hair starting to fall out? Do you want to know what shampoo you should be using? Is there anything you can do to stop it happening? This episode is all about hair thinning during breast cancer treatment with Jasmin Julia Gupta, founder of Cancer Hair Care. We had a great response to Jasmin’s episode in Season Two talking all about hair loss during chemo. I ran out of time to ask her all your questions, and she kindly agreed to come back and help us deal with this really sensitive subject.

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Cancer Hair Care home page: https://www.cancerhaircare.co.uk/

Download the FREE book including tips on hair thinning and all cancer treatments:  https://www.cancerhaircare.co.uk/book-free-download/

Speak to a Cancer Hair Care Specialist Hairdresser: https://www.cancerhaircare.co.uk/support-services-overview/contact-us/

What is minoxidil and will it help with my new hair growth?

https://www.cancerhaircare.co.uk/new-hair-growth-commonly-asked-qa-2/

Making Your Own Stimulating Scalp Oil Using ROSEMARY

https://youtu.be/MFKiih7NGWA?si=iGCAIi3iROKPmZRT

Book a consultation with a Cancer Hair Care Hairdresser 

https://www.cancerhaircare.co.uk/support-services-overview/contact-us/

My amazing podcast poet is Donna Ashworth and you heard  a poem from her new book ‘Growing Brave’  - available now in all online bookstores. You can find out more about Donna on her website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook

Season Three was kindly sponsored by Breast Friends CIC – an organisation that truly understands the power of peer support for anyone on the breast cancer journey. Head over to www.breastfriends.co.uk to find out more. If you would like to sponsor Season Four, please get in touch at [email protected]. 

If you’ve got a question for the show, then please get in touch online or send me a voice note.  You can find me on social media  -  Instagram, X and Facebook. A special thanks goes to medical student Tamara Enthoven for helping me to collate all the questions.

You can also watch this episode! Head to my Youtube channel @DrLizORiordan to see this season’s episodes as they are released and lots of other useful videos full of reliable information. 

Subscribe to my monthly newsletter here to find out what I’ve been up to and what I’m recommending each month. 

And you can now pre-order my third book ‘The Cancer Roadmap’ (out January 2025), or buy the updated edition of my first book ‘The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer: How to Feel Empowered and Take Control’. Plus, if you’re nosey and want to find out more about my life, my memoir  ‘Under The Knife’ - is also available in all good bookshops.

How do you keep going when your world falls apart? Can you make a difference and turn a bad thing into a good thing? Is it possible to get your fitness back when treatment ends? To kick off Season 3 of So Now I’ve Got Breast Cancer, I’m speaking to a  very special guest, the Olympian Donna Fraser OBE. She’s  a quadruple Olympian sprinter who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 while she was still a professional athlete. She has since been awarded an OBE for her services to equality, inclusion and diversity in the workplace and is a proud ambassador for the charity Breast Cancer Now. 

Here are the resources that Donna mentioned:

Breast Cancer Now https://breastcancernow.org/

Her Spirit App https://www.herspirit.co.uk/

Donna’s website www.donnafraserofficial.com

If you’re a person of colour going through a breast cancer diagnosis, you may also find these support groups useful: 

Black Women Rising - https://www.blackwomenrisinguk.org/

South Asian supernovas - @southasiansupernovas  

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My amazing podcast poet is Donna Ashworth and you heard  a poem from her new book ‘Growing Brave’  - available now in all online bookstores. You can find out more about Donna on her website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook

Season Three was kindly sponsored by Breast Friends CIC – an organisation that truly understands the power of peer support for anyone on the breast cancer journey. Head over to www.breastfriends.co.uk to find out more. If you would like to sponsor Season Four, please get in touch at [email protected]. 

If you’ve got a question for the show, then please get in touch online or send me a voice note.  You can find me on social media  -  Instagram, X and Facebook. A special thanks goes to medical student Tamara Enthoven for helping me to collate all the questions.

You can also watch this episode! Head to my Youtube channel @DrLizORiordan to see this season’s episodes as they are released and lots of other useful videos full of reliable information. 

Subscribe to my monthly newsletter here to find out what I’ve been up to and what I’m recommending each month. 

And you can now pre-order my third book ‘The Cancer Roadmap’ (out January 2025), or buy the updated edition of my first book ‘The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer: How to Feel Empowered and Take Control’. Plus, if you’re nosey and want to find out more about my life, my memoir  ‘Under The Knife’ - is also available in all good bookshops.

I know what it’s like to have your sex life turned upside down by breast cancer treatment. I’d only been married for a couple of years and neither my husband Dermot or I were prepared for what was about to happen. I wanted him to divorce me and find a woman with 2 healthy breasts and a libido to match.And I know I’m not alone.

You’ve sent me so many questions about this that have made my heart break just reading them, and I’m thrilled that we’ve got Charlene Douglas with us this episode to answer them.

Charlene, aka The Intimacy Coach UK,  is a  sex and relationship therapist known for her TV appearances on Married at First Sight and The Sex Clinic. She delivers workshops for Macmillan about cancer, sex and intimacy, and she talks about the importance of getting to know ourselves again before we even speak to our partners.

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Here are the websites Charlene mentioned:

OMGYES -  https://start.omgyes.com/

Ferly - mindful sex - https://weareferly.com/

Climax.how - https://climax.how/

The College of Sex and Relationship Therapists can be found here - https://www.cosrt.org.uk/

And The Menopause Charity is here - https://www.themenopausecharity.org/

More information about Ohnuts - https://www.jodivine.com/products/ohnut-classic-buffer-rings?page=2

And there are loads of brands of sex cushions out there - just search ‘sex cushions’ to see some options.  

Charlene’s website The Intimacy Coach UK contains information and resources for anyone struggling with questions about their sex life - and details of how you can book therapy sessions with Charlene herself - https://www.theintimacycoachuk.com/

And she has a book coming out! You can pre-order it here:  Come Closer: Everything You Ever Wanted to Ask a Sex and Relationship Therapist: Amazon.co.uk: Douglas, Charlene: 9780241678879: Books

You can also find Charlene on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/charlenedouglasofficial/?hl=en

And join Charlene’s Facebook group for women here - Pleasure, Fun, and Intimacy! - For Women Who Want More. | Facebook 

Charlene also contributed to the booklet  ‘Pleasure & Intimacy: A Guide for People Living with Cancer’ which you can download here - https://issuu.com/fruitflycollective/docs/sex_cancer_book

My amazing  podcast poet is Donna Ashworth and you heard  a poem from her new book ‘Wild Hope - available now in all online bookstores. You can find out more about Donna on her website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook

You can also watch this episode! Head to my Youtube channel @DrLizORiordan to see this season’s episodes as they are released and lots of other useful videos full of reliable information. 

And that’s the last episode in this series! Thanks so much to everyone who’s sent a question and sorry that I haven’t been able to include all of them. 

If you’ve got a question for Season 3, then please get in touch online or send me a voice note. 

You can find me on social media  -  Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, or e-mail me at [email protected] . 

You can still sign up to my monthly newsletter here 

And another place to find out more about breast cancer is my book ‘The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer: How to Feel Empowered and Take Control’. If you’re nosey and want to find out more about my life, my memoir  ‘Under The Knife’ - is also available in all good bookshops.

Finally, if you loved the show and want to help other women like you find it, you can leave a 5-star review wherever you get your podcasts, or you can show your support to help keep the show going and buy me a coffee here.

I’ll see you later this year for Season 3 x

Is it true that sugar feeds cancer? Do you really need to detox? What should you eat when you’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer? As a breast surgeon I had no idea my patients were scouring the internet looking for a miracle diet, but the minute I became a patient I realised how much misinformation is out there regarding what we should eat. On this episode I’m going to set the record straight with the help of Dr Clare Shaw, consultant oncology dietitian and author of The Royal Marsden Cancer Cookbook.

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Here are some of the resources Clare mentioned: 

British Dietetic Association 

https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/cancer-diets-myths-and-more.html

World Cancer Research Fund

https://www.wcrf-uk.org/healthy-eating/ 

https://www.wcrf-uk.org/health-advice-and-support/living-with-cancer/living-with-cancer-your-questions-answered/

Cancer Research UK

https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2023/07/19/lets-get-to-the-bottom-of-it-7-common-cancer-myths-unpicked/ 

And you can download the Royal Marsden guide to food safety here - https://patientinfolibrary.royalmarsden.nhs.uk/document/download/1417

My amazing  podcast poet is Donna Ashworth and you heard  a poem from her new book ‘Wild Hope - available now in all online bookstores. You can find out more about Donna on her website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook

If you’ve got a question for the show, then please get in touch online or send me a voice note. 

You can find me on social media  -  Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, or e-mail me at [email protected] . 

If you’ve got a question for season two, then please get in touch online or send me a voice note. 

You can find me on social media  -  Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, or e-mail me at [email protected] . 

You can also watch this episode! Head to my Youtube channel @DrLizORiordan to see this season’s episodes as they are released and lots of other useful videos full of reliable information. 

AND MY BRAND NEW MONTHLY NEWSLETTER IS HERE! Find out what I’ve been up to and get some useful recommendations by subscribing here 

Another place to find out more about breast cancer is my book ‘The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer: How to Feel Empowered and Take Control’. And if you’re nosey and want to find out more about my life, my memoir  ‘Under The Knife’ - is also available in all good bookshops.

Have you found out that you need to have radiotherapy? Do you want to know how it works or why you need it in the first place? Maybe you're worried about the side effects? In this episode I’m going to answer all your questions about radiotherapy with this weeks’ experts, Jo and Naman, the two therapeutic radiographers behind the award-winning podcast RadChat.

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You can find out all about Radchat and loads of radiotherapy support sites here 

My amazing  podcast poet is Donna Ashworth and you heard  a poem from her new book ‘Wild Hope - available now in all online bookstores. You can find out more about Donna on her website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook

If you’ve got a question for the show, then please get in touch online or send me a voice note. 

You can find me on social media  -  Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, or e-mail me at [email protected] . 

If you’ve got a question for season two, then please get in touch online or send me a voice note. 

You can find me on social media  -  Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, or e-mail me at [email protected] . 

You can also watch this episode! Head to my Youtube channel @DrLizORiordan to see this season’s episodes as they are released and lots of other useful videos full of reliable information. 

AND MY BRAND NEW MONTHLY NEWSLETTER IS HERE! Find out what I’ve been up to and get some useful recommendations by subscribing here 

Another place to find out more about breast cancer is my book ‘The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer: How to Feel Empowered and Take Control’. And if you’re nosey and want to find out more about my life, my memoir  ‘Under The Knife’ - is also available in all good bookshops.

One of the questions I dreaded getting asked when I worked as a breast surgeon was ‘How do I tell my children?’ I don’t have children of my own, and I had no idea what to say. My breast care nurses would step in and I would breathe a sigh of relief. Judging from all your questions this week, telling your children you have cancer can be fraught with anxiety, worry, guilt and stress. And that’s the last thing you need when you’re going through breast cancer treatment.

This week’s guest is here to help. Caroline Leek is the founder and director of the FruitFly collective. Caroline’s mission at FruitFly is to help families talk about cancer, death and grief and to support children of any age with the tools they need to help them cope and know they’re not alone, and I’m thrilled she was able to join me - IN PERSON - for this special episode which you can also watch on my Youtube channel. 

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Here are some of the websites Caroline mentioned: 

www.parentingwithcancer.org

www.fruitflycollective.com

www.pipskit.com

Ruth strauss foundation  - for people facing end of life - https://ruthstraussfoundation.com/

Mummys star - https://www.mummysstar.org/

 http://www.riprap.org.uk/ 

You can also book tickets to the Parenting with Cancer conference in May here - (delegates are bothe healthcare professionals and parents)

https://buytickets.at/fruitflycollective/1059526

If you’ve got a question for the show, then please get in touch online or send me a voice note. 

You can find me on social media  -  Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, or e-mail me at [email protected] . 

You can also watch this episode! Head to my Youtube channel @DrLizORiordan to see this season’s episodes as they are released and lots of other useful videos full of reliable information. 

AND MY BRAND NEW MONTHLY NEWSLETTER IS HERE! Find out what I’ve been up to and get some useful recommendations by subscribing here 

Another place to find out more about breast cancer is my book ‘The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer: How to Feel Empowered and Take Control’. And if you’re nosey and want to find out more about my life, my memoir  ‘Under The Knife’ - is also available in all good bookshops.

One of the first questions my patients asked when I told them they needed chemo was ‘Am I going to lose my hair?’. And when your hair does fall out, there are even more questions. Why does it come back grey and curly? How do I explain to my children that I’m bald? Where can you find a decent wig? On this episode I’m going to answer all your questions about hair loss with this week’s guest, Jasmin Julia Gupta, founder of the charity Cancer Hair Care. She's a hairdresser and a hair loss expert who  consults with the NHS and major charities like Breast Cancer Now, Macmillan and the Teenage Cancer Trust, and she wrote the first ever ‘Afro hair chemotherapy guide.

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The Cancer hair Care website can be found here:  https://www.cancerhaircare.co.uk/

You can find out how to find a wig or cancer-specific hair care, you can order a hair-loss doll and learn more about scalp cooling. 

This is the Paxman support site just for cold caps :  https://coldcap.com/

You can download the free book Jasmin mentioned here

https://www.cancerhaircare.co.uk/book-free-download/

To contact Jasmin’s team’s Phone Support Service: https://www.cancerhaircare.co.uk/support-services-overview/contact-us/

My amazing  podcast poet is Donna Ashworth and you heard  a poem from her new book ‘Wild Hope - available now in all online bookstores. You can find out more about Donna on her website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook

If you’ve got a question for the show, then please get in touch online or send me a voice note. 

You can find me on social media  -  Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, or e-mail me at [email protected] . 

If you’ve got a question for season two, then please get in touch online or send me a voice note. 

You can find me on social media  -  Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, or e-mail me at [email protected] . 

You can also watch this episode! Head to my Youtube channel @DrLizORiordan to see this season’s episodes as they are released and lots of other useful videos full of reliable information. 

AND MY BRAND NEW MONTHLY NEWSLETTER IS HERE! Find out what I’ve been up to and get some useful recommendations by subscribing here 

Another place to find out more about breast cancer is my book ‘The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer: How to Feel Empowered and Take Control’. And if you’re nosey and want to find out more about my life, my memoir  ‘Under The Knife’ - is also available in all good bookshops.

Just hearing the words ‘you need chemotherapy’ can turn your world upside down. I hated telling my patients they needed it, and when I found I out I would have it myself, I felt lost.Would my hair fall out? How bad would it be? Would it work? How would I cope? Add to that the other drugs we give patients - targeted therapies and immunotherapy - it can feel like treatment never ends. That’s when you need someone in your pocket you can call for help, and on this episode  we have Rachel Clifton, a Macmillan Breast Oncology Nurse Specialist. I worked with her when I was a consultant at Ipswich and I knew she was the one to answer all your questions. Not only is Rachel an incredible nurse, but she’s passionate about raising the profile of metastatic breast cancer, with the ‘Secondary. Not Second Rate’ campaign. But there’s more - she’s even been a nurse advisor for Holby City.

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Rachel’s go to sources are  Breast Cancer Now, which has useful information about chemo here, and Macmillan, whose chemo pages for breast cancer are here 

She also mentioned the amazing Cancer Hair Care - who will be on the show next week! But if you can’t wait their website is here. 

The Cancer Care Map can also signpost you to support services near you - see their website here

If you’ve got a question for the show, then please get in touch online or send me a voice note. 

You can find me on social media  -  Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, or e-mail me at [email protected] . 

If you’ve got a question for season two, then please get in touch online or send me a voice note. 

You can find me on social media  -  Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, or e-mail me at [email protected] . 

You can also watch this episode! Head to my Youtube channel @DrLizORiordan to see this season’s episodes as they are released and lots of other useful videos full of reliable information. 

AND MY BRAND NEW MONTHLY NEWSLETTER IS HERE! Find out what I’ve been up to and get some useful recommendations by subscribing here 

Another place to find out more about breast cancer is my book ‘The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer: How to Feel Empowered and Take Control’. And if you’re nosey and want to find out more about my life, my memoir  ‘Under The Knife’ - is also available in all good bookshops.

Finally, if you loved the show and want to help other women like you find it, you can leave a 5-star review wherever you get your podcasts, or you can show your support to help keep the show going and buy me a coffee here.