To mark the return of So Now I’ve Got Breast Cancer, topless marathon runner Louise Butcher discusses her decision to go flat and how she’s come to terms with her new body.

Louise admits to being an anxious hypochondriac, but when she was diagnosed with lobular cancer in 2022, she had to confront the disease she’d always feared. She had both breasts removed, and running kept her sane as she dealt with all the treatments. She now runs topless and has created a storm on the news and social media. She's raising awareness about what it can mean to be flat and how your breasts don't need to define you.

Louise’s book https://pegasuspublishers.com/books/louise-butcher/going-topless

Her Instagram https://www.instagram.com/louisebutcher39/?hl=en

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. 

Here are links to buy my third book ‘The Cancer Roadmap’, or 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 cope with the fear of recurrence? What do you do when scanxiety hits? Can you make your family understand what you’re going through? This episode is all about how to cope with anxiety with Dr Suzanne Cruickshank, a breast cancer nurse who now leads research  at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London about  how to help people cope with the fear of recurrence.

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Susanne spoke about the Ruth Strauss Foundation -https://ruthstraussfoundation.com/

Maggies also offer counselling services -  https://www.maggies.org/ 

And if you’ve got children then also check out Fruit Fly Collective - https://www.fruitflycollective.com/

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.

This is the last episode of Season 3! Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you in 2025. 

Breast cancer can be really scary, especially when your oncologist rattles off a list of treatments and side effects. I can’t think of anyone better to help me explain what they are and why you have them than Dr Eleonora Teplinsky. She’s the Head of Breast and Gynecologic Medical Oncology at Valley Health System and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She dedicates her free time to creating videos on YouTube and Instagram to explain breast cancer treatment and I’m a huge fan.

In this episode we get quite technical about treatments, so if you’re very newly diagnosed you might first want to listen to my interview with Rachel Clifton about chemotherapy  from Season 2  which you can find HERE

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You can follow Eleonora on Instagram @drteplinsky:  https://www.instagram.com/drteplinsky/?hl=en

And Youtube @drteplinsky:  https://www.youtube.com/@drteplinsky

She also has her own podcast! INTERLUDE: Cancer Stories with Dr Teplinsky 

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.

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

How do you style your new body shape after breast cancer ? Where do you get the confidence to try something new? What do you do when your grey chemo curls mean that the colours in your wardrobe don’t suit you anymore? This episode is all about how to find your style again with Alyson Walsh, journalist, author and founder of ‘That’s Not My Age’

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You can find Alyson’s site That's Not My Age here: https://thatsnotmyage.com/

You can also find her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatsnotmyage/?hl=en

And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thatsnotmyage/

Here are some of the brands Alyson mentioned to give you inspiration: 

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.

Do you struggle to get a good nights’ sleep? Is the fear of recurrence keeping you awake? Can you ever get rid of insomnia? On this episode I'll be finding out how we can improve our sleep with Alison Gardiner - behavioural psychologist and CEO and Founder of Sleepstation, the UK’s leading online sleep support programme for insomnia. There’s also a discount code below so you can try it for free.

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To find out more about Sleepstation just visit https://www.sleepstation.org.uk/

You can also follow them on social media

Twitter/X: https://x.com/_sleepstation

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

Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/SleepstationApp/

LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/company/sleepstation

Alison’s LinkedIn -  https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-gardiner-74377916/

The thought blocking techniques Alison mentioned can be found here- https://www.sleepstation.org.uk/thought-blocking/

For UK listeners, Sleepstation is available for free with a GP referral in certain parts of England. There’s a helpful postcode checker on their website to check availability in your area: https://www.sleepstation.org.uk/start-now/. It's also available as part of some company health and wellbeing/benefits packages.

If this doesn’t apply to you, Sleepstation have very kindly offered my listeners an exclusive discount code! Just add LR24164 at the checkout for a 50% discount on their CBTi therapy programme until 20th December 2024, and 25% discount on therapy thereafter. 

You might also qualify for a grant, or the Sleepstation team also have other support available for those experiencing financial difficulties, so do reach out to them to find out more. You can contact them at [email protected]

If you just want to ask a few questions before you decide if it’s right for you, for a limited time you can also sign up for a free Sleepstation account at the Sleepstation Hub. This means you can log into their confidential chat system and get your questions answered by experts and access free self-help resources. Just go to https://www.sleepstation.org.uk/ to find out more.

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.

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