The Apple & The Tree

This episode is sponsored by Cancer Research UK.

In this special episode we’re in Horsham in West Sussex to meet Livi Deane and her mum, Sarah. Aged just 12, Livi was diagnosed with a rare retinoblastoma, becoming only the second person ever in the UK to have the disease that was over the age of five. Desperate not to lose her eye, Livi went through 16 rounds of chemotherapy and spent a year in remission, but that didn’t stop the cancer and her eye was removed when she was 14. She has spoken about falling into depression following her surgery and as a young teenager Livi said she felt, “very alone, always ill and a few nasty things were said about my appearance.”

But she battled on, grew stronger in herself and began adjusting to life with a prosthetic eye. Livi has spoken about living with impaired vision and a prosthetic eye. She now regularly shares her experiences with children experiencing the same disease and is an ambassador for The Childhood Eye Cancer Trust.

Recently Livi has said, “I feel beautiful without my prosthetic eye and believe others deserve to feel beautiful too.” She’s modelled for Vogue Portugal, Apple and Primark and feels strongly about “normalising body differences.” Her goal, she insists, “is to prevent bullying and help people feel confident in their own skin.”

For more information on the work Cancer Research UK is doing to beat cancer in children and young people, go to cruk.org/children-and-young-people

To get in touch just email [email protected]. You can find us on Instagram and X @appletreepod. Let us know about your family stories!

Presenter: Vogue Williams

Producer: Rob Fitzpatrick

Editing: Chelsey Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

Music written by Aloysius James and performed by Perry Ap Gwynedd and Lunar Jane

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In Tunbridge Wells in Kent we meet Jamie and his mum Jacqui. Jamie is an online fitness instructor and global body-building competitor who wanted to talk to Jacqui about his decision to revert to Islam and marry a muslim woman.

From a young age Jamie had obsessive tendencies, he hated school, became a heavy drinker and even spent time in prison in Thailand.

Jacqui wanted to know if he recalled his youthful mania for magic tricks, how terrified she was when she discovered his body-building drugs and how welcome she was made to feel by Jamie’s wife’s family.

To get in touch just email [email protected]. You can find us on Instagram and X @appletreepod. Let us know about your family stories - who knows, maybe we can meet next time!

Presenter: Vogue Williams

Producer: Rob Fitzpatrick

Editing: Tony Onu

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

Music written by Aloysius James and performed by Perry Ap Gwynedd and Lunar June

A Daily Mail Production. Seriously Popular.

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In Waltham Abbey in Essex we meet Julie, her son Tomor and his elder sister, Leonora.

Julie’s late husband Bill arrived in the UK as a refugee from the former Yugoslavia and was a kind and loving father who, over time, became gripped by a gambling addiction which ultimately caused him to take his own life in a terrifying way.

Leonora, Tom and Julie have all been through counseling since his death and want to remember the good and bad times and talk about their desires for their future without him.

To get in touch just email [email protected]. You can find us on Instagram and X @appletreepod. Let us know about your family stories - who knows, maybe we can meet next time!

Presenter: Vogue Williams

Producer: Rob Fitzpatrick

Editing: Tony Onu

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

Music written by Aloysius James and performed by Perry Ap Gwynedd and Lunar June

A Daily Mail Production. Seriously Popular.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In Putney, South West London, we meet mum Patricia and her daughter Jasmine, who was adopted from China as a baby.

Jasmine has always wanted to ask Patricia, who suffered the loss of her birth daughter at a very young age, about how and why she decided to pursue a transracial adoption and how she feels about the process now.

Patricia, who suffers from ataxia, a disorder that affects coordination, balance and speech, wanted to ask Jasmine about how she feels as an adult - and a carer - in this blended family.

To get in touch just email [email protected]. You can find us on Instagram and X @appletreepod. Let us know about your family stories - who knows, maybe we can meet next time!

Presenter: Vogue Williams

Producer: Rob Fitzpatrick

Editing: Tony Onu

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

Music written by Aloysius James and performed by Perry Ap Gwynedd and Lunar June

A Daily Mail Production. Seriously Popular.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In Mitcham in South London we meet Ashley and his mum, Denise. Ashley is hugely proud of his mum, a woman who, for years, has worked tirelessly to help her community even through her cancer diagnosis and subsequent mastectomy. Denise split with Ashley’s dad when he was very young and Ashley wants to talk about the times he felt unsafe without a male parent in the house and explore why Denise still thinks of him as her “golden child” even now he’s in his 30’s.

To get in touch just email [email protected]. You can find us on Instagram and X @appletreepod. Let us know about your family stories - who knows, maybe we can meet next time!

Presenter: Vogue Williams

Producer: Rob Fitzpatrick

Editing: Tony Onu

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

Music written by Aloysius James and performed by Perry Ap Gwynedd and Lunar June

A Daily Mail Production. Seriously Popular.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In Brighton we meet Iman and her mum, Shahla. Iman wanted to know more about her mum’s childhood and what it was like to move from Pakistan to England as a teenager. The family suffered the loss of Iman’s father during lockdown after a long and complicated illness. Iman felt this devastating event had changed their relationship and wanted to explore this with her mum, as well as talk about the miscarriages Shahla had experienced and her hopes that her mum, who’s still only in her mid-40s, can see a way ahead for her own life.

To get in touch just email [email protected]. You can find us on Instagram and X @appletreepod. Let us know about your family stories - who knows, maybe we can meet next time!

Presenter: Vogue Williams

Producer: Rob Fitzpatrick

Editing: Tony Onu

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

Music written by Aloysius James and performed by Perry Ap Gwynedd and Lunar June

A Daily Mail Production. Seriously Popular.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In Reading in Berkshire we meet Ally and her mum Wendy. As a teenager, Ally discovered she had MRKH, a rare congenital disorder that means she was born without a vagina, womb or cervix. Understandably, this was extremely difficult for Ally and her mum to deal with and Ally lived through some wild years with difficult relationships and risky behaviour. Now an advocate and spokesperson for the MRKH community, Ally says she has moved past any shame or regret, but always wanted to ask her mum if she’s sad she’ll never have grandchildren.

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In Forest Hill, South East London, we meet Alex and his mum Sue. In 2020, shortly after he turned 30 Alex was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease after suffering for months with twitches and loss of strength in his hands. He’s now 33 and is a wheelchair user. Alex wanted to ask his mum about the impact of his MND diagnosis on the family, how she felt when both he and his elder brother came out as gay and about her time living in pre-revolution Tehran as an air-hostess for Iran Airways.

To get in touch just email [email protected]. You can find us on Instagram and X @appletreepod. Let us know about your family stories - who knows, maybe we can meet next time!

Presenter: Vogue Williams

Producer: Rob Fitzpatrick

Editing: Tony Onu

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

Music written by Aloysius James and performed by Perry Ap Gwynedd and Lunar June

A Daily Mail Production. Seriously Popular.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recorded in our studios in Central London, we meet Julie and her daughter Lois. Julie was born in Scotland, trained as a singer, brought her children up in South London and now lives in Surrey. Lois wanted to ask her mum about her own childhood, where she was abandoned by her father and her mother attempted to burn the house down with the children locked inside. Lois has never spoken to her mum about the impact these events had on her own life. There’s also the incredible story of when Lois nearly died while hiking in South Africa and her iron-willed determination to survive.

To get in touch just email [email protected]. You can find us on Instagram and X @appletreepod. Let us know about your family stories - who knows, maybe we can meet next time!

Presenter: Vogue Williams

Producer: Rob Fitzpatrick

Editing: Tony Onu

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

Music written by Aloysius James and performed by Perry Ap Gwynedd and Lunar June

A Daily Mail Production. Seriously Popular.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In Flitwick in Bedfordshire, we meet Ana and her daughter, Laura. Ana was born in Romania and moved to the UK when she was just 20 and expecting a child. Laura wanted to talk to her mum about her life in Romania, the shame culture the country still suffers with and how her parents built the good life that they all now enjoy.

Ana talks about the racism and prejudice she has faced - and sometimes still faces - being Romanian in the UK, while Laura wanted to talk about her own desire to interact more with Romania, a country she feels part of, even if that country doesn’t seem to love her back.

To get in touch just email [email protected]. You can find us on Instagram and X @appletreepod. Let us know about your family stories - who knows, maybe we can meet next time!

Presenter: Vogue Williams

Producer: Rob Fitzpatrick

Editing: Tony Onu

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Executive Producer: Jamie East

Music written by Aloysius James and performed by Perry Ap Gwynedd and Lunar June

A Daily Mail Production. Seriously Popular.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices