You, Me and the Big C: Putting the can in cancer

Internationally acclaimed audio storyteller Sophie Townsend joins Deborah, Lauren and Steve to discuss the story and experiences behind her new podcast ‘Goodbye To All This’.

It’s a love story about life, loss and grief and coming back out the other side and we include episode one alongside our interview with Sophie.

Don’t forget, you can get in touch by using the #YouMeBigC across all forms of social media – spread the word and share the positive support.

Dr David Crosby, Head of Prevention and Early Detection Research at Cancer Research UK, joins Deborah, Lauren and Steve to talk about what the future of cancer may look like. He sets out a roadmap of how we can try and get to a point where nobody gets a late stage cancer diagnosis.

Don’t forget, you can get in touch by using the #youmebigc across all forms of social media – spread the word and share the positive support.

Lauren, Debs and Steve mark the start of Breast Cancer Awareness month with a jam packed episode!

Dr Zoe Williams joins the team to talk about early diagnosis, Laura Middleton-Hughes discusses secondary breast cancer, plus David Aggett and Dave Talbot reveal how they're raising awareness about male breast cancer.

Don't forget you can get in touch by using #YouMeBigC across all forms of social media - spread the word and share the positive support.

Karol Sikora, an oncologist for 50 years and former Director of the World Health Organisation's cancer programme and Katharina Hauck, a Reader in Health Economics at the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Imperial College London both join Lauren, Deborah and Steve to look at where we are now in terms of cancer treatment and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Don't forget, you can get in touch by using the #YouMeBigC across all forms of social media - spread the word and share the positive support.

Emma Dutton co-founder of Untangle Grief and the artist behind Grief Kid join Lauren, Debs and Steve to discuss how they are helping people come to terms with grief.

Don't forget, you can get in touch by using the #YouMeBigC across all forms of social media - spread the word and share the positive support.

Tina Seymour, chief executive of Hope For Tomorrow, joins Debs, Lauren and Steve to talk about how the charity provides mobile cancer care units to NHS Trusts and the challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The #YouMeBigC team are also joined by Madelaine McLaughlin who uses the service and Pat Dyminski, who is a lead clinical nurse and MSCC Coordinator at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, to discuss the impact mobile units can make to rural communities.

After the death of her son, aged just 23 months, Leanne Fisher and her husband co-founded Fletcher's Fund - a small charity with the aim of providing fun things to children going through cancer treatment.

Leanne talks to Lauren, Deborah and Steve about her story, why she set up the charity and what they aim do to help children facing cancer.

She also highlights the challenges facing small charities in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

You can get in touch by using the #YouMeBigC across all forms of social media.

Executive producer Lucie Kon and director Chris Alcock of Panorama’s 'Britain’s Cancer Crisis' join Deborah, Lauren and Steve to give a fascinating insight into how the film was made.

Plus Neil Bayman, Associate Medical Director at the Christie, shares his response to the Panorama.

He discusses the challenges of giving cancer care during the pandemic and talks about the impact Kelly Smith had at the hospital.

Don't forget, you can get in touch by using the #YouMeBigC across all forms of social media - spread the word and share the positive support.

Kelly Smith, known on social media as Kickass Kell, talks to Deborah, Lauren and Steve about her cancer treatment during the coronavirus pandemic. We also hear from Kelly's mum Mandy who was caring for her.

Ten days after recording, Kelly sadly died.

Parts of this podcast were filmed for a special Panorama documentary called 'Britain's Cancer Crisis', where Deborah investigates fears that the coronavirus pandemic could cause a crisis in cancer care in the UK, how the NHS has managed cancer care during lockdown and she meets more fellow patients to discover what the pandemic has meant for them.

Before lockdown, we'd started to record a new series speaking to gamechangers in the cancer community. Our first recording was with Leanne Pero and Charlotte Crowl, but due to Covid-19 everything was put on hold.

In this episode we catch up with Leanne. You'll hear the original recording from back in early March, alongside her thoughts of what's happened and changed since.

Leanne and Charlotte do a new podcast called 'Black Women Rising: The Untold Cancer Stories' where you can find out more about their amazing work - it's available in all the usual podcast places.

We aim to return to the cancer gamechangers series in the next few episodes, so if there's someone making a difference in your cancer community please tell us all about them by using #youmebigc across all forms of social media.

This episode is dedicated to our dear friend (and previous guest on the pod) Saima Thompson.