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The Cornwall Cancer Cafe podcast with Matthew Clarke.
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And welcome to this first edition where we’ll be introducing you to what we plan to do through
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the coming year.
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Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund for supporting this podcast.
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Thank you to them for enabling us to bring some cancer support across Cornwall using
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the wonders of podcasting.
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So I’m Matthew Clark.
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I want to start this by introducing myself so that you know who’s talking with you and
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what experience I have so that you know that I have been there and back.
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So just a bit of my background.
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I am a professional broadcaster.
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I have read the news on radio stations such as Pirate FM, Atlantic FM, Heart Radio and
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Radio Plymouth.
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The reason why I’m doing this is because over the last four years I have been going
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through a nasty old bout of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
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So that started just after the Covid stuff started settling down.
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And I had chemotherapy for a year, then I relapsed, then I had more chemotherapy and
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a stem cell transplant, then I relapsed and then I had what’s called a targeted by
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specific treatment called Glophitumab.
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I’m still in remission from that.
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However, last year I did have pneumonia as well.
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No, I wasn’t laughing at the time.
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I’m laughing now.
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It’s been a tough old ride.
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So I thought I would bring some of my life experience and my broadcasting skill to
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be there with you through whatever you are going through.
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Maybe you are still in treatment.
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Maybe you’ve just been diagnosed.
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Maybe you are the friend or family or carer of someone who has just been
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diagnosed or is in treatment.
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There are also some people who’ve come through it and are trying to get their
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lives back together.
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That includes me.
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And there are some people as well who have not made it through cancer.
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I know I’ve had friends during the time I’ve been in treatment.
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I’ve had friends who have not made it through cancer.
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Here to support you, the Cornwall Cancer Cafe podcast.
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And here is a big hug of support for you from me, a virtual hug.
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And I hope that this podcast will also be exactly that for you, a hug.
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What I want to say here, though, also is that everyone is different.
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No cancer is the same.
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No person is the same.
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No one experience is the same.
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So just bear that in mind.
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Also, bear in mind, I am not a psychologist.
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I’m not a counsellor.
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I’m not a consultant.
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I’m not a cancer nurse.
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I’m not trained in any way like that.
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What I do have is life experience, which I hope to act from and ask
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questions from that perspective.
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And we will be talking to people who have been dealing, who are are
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dealing with different forms of cancer.
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Also, to those who provide counselling and various therapies.
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One of my big supports has been Macmillan at the Royal Cornwall
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Hospital through their Cove Centre.
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And I still regularly use their support.
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And that is brilliant.
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And we’ll be talking about all sorts of support.
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So what I want to do is just give you a little bit of an interview
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with Nikki from the Cove, one of the managers, and we will be
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listening to more of her in the future, but just a little snippet
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so you can hear some of the conversations that we will be having.
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People that are just diagnosed will quite often hear about us
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from their first consultation and then they’ll walk through the doors.
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Or it may be people that have had their treatment and now living
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with and beyond cancer and want to come in and see what support
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we can give them through groups or therapy and are moving forward.
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So that was Nikki Lampshire, one of the managers at the Cove
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Centre at the Royal Cornwall Hospital.
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We will hear more from her in the future.
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Someone else who provides a lot of support nationally is Mark Gaimer.
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He’s the chief executive of Cancer Support UK, and he will be
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joining us on several programmes in the future, just looking back
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on some of our interviews and giving his thoughts because they are very useful.
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They’ve got some services online which can help all sorts of people.
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I’m going to now play you an excerpt from an upcoming piece
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where he has just listened to an interview I’ve done about
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the young people service at the Cove.
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It really came to light that whilst we often talk about and recognise
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that everybody’s cancer experience is different, when we’re talking
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about young adults aged, you know, broadly 16 to 25, there is clearly
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a whole set of other challenges that these individuals are facing.
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It’s a very significant period in someone’s life when a lot is changing.
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The best example I think you talked about, which really brought the
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points home, was that obviously under the age of 16, you are a child
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and you don’t make decisions for yourself.
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And then as you get to 18, become an adult, you’re suddenly able to
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and sometimes expected to make choices and decisions.
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And if you layer on top of that, the significance and the disruption
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of a cancer diagnosis and the treatment, suddenly to be faced with,
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you know, potential decisions around that, that’s a really big change.
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That’s an extra level on top of what’s already a very challenging time.
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You’re listening to the Cornwall Cancer Cafe podcast.
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With me, Matthew Clarke.
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And you might wonder who the voice is just there.
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That was Emma Coom, someone I met at the Cove in music therapy.
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I will talk about, actually, we’re going to do a music therapy podcast
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with Emma very soon, and even sooner than that, we will be having a podcast
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where I will spend the whole program chatting with Emma about her experience
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and comparing notes, maybe you might find something interesting there.
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Emma is a very interesting person.
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She goes diving, she’s in treatment and she still goes diving.
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I wouldn’t go diving when I wasn’t in treatment.
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We are going to be talking to Emma very soon, but let’s have just a little
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listen to Emma’s upcoming podcast where we find out a little bit about her.
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My cancer is melanoma, which everybody will know as skin cancer.
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Now, my skin cancer appeared on my head underneath my hair.
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So I would say to everybody out there, don’t just look at your skin that you can see.
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Look at the bits of skin that you can’t see because mine was in my hair.
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And when I found it, I spoke to my doctor and I was very quickly moved
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along the route of getting it diagnosed and had it removed.
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And then shortly after, I had another lump appear in my neck,
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which meant that it had moved, so it would become stage three metastatic.
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Emma Coombe there talking to me about her melanoma.
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And I will be talking more to her in upcoming episodes.
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She was saying that she found her lump amongst her hair.
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And so her advice was very salient, you know,
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and I live on my own.
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So I don’t actually have a partner to check the parts of my head,
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my back that I can’t see.
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So that is actually a worry for me sometimes.
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And lumps and bumps are always a worry.
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Now that I’m in remission from blood cancer,
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non Hodgkin’s lymphoma, every ache I get is a worry.
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I thought when I had had my R-Chop chemotherapy back in 2022,
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that that would be it.
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I would be back, back to life as I thought.
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I would be just going back to everything I had done before.
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That’s what I thought.
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That wasn’t the case, though.
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Not at all. Oh, no.
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All sorts of things can happen.
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And we want to just let you know that you’re not alone
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if you’re going through some of these worries,
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because everyone has worries whether they were still in treatment or not.
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And we can’t give you medical or clinical comment on this,
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but we can say that it happens.
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Other people go through these things as well.
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I don’t want to say I understand what you’re going through,
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because I don’t, because it’s difficult.
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Everyone is different. Everyone is different.
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I know for a certain fact that non Hodgkin’s lymphoma
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has almost 60 different varieties, variants of it.
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And everyone I’ve spoken to who’s had non Hodgkin’s lymphoma
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has a different experience from me.
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So although in support, you want to almost have that feedback
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from someone else that makes you feel, oh, yes, I’m not alone.
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I’m going through what someone else is going through.
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So it’s not always the case.
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You think, oh, that’s different.
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I haven’t had that.
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This is another big salient topic for the future.
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I’ll also be bringing you music from along my cancer journey.
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Here’s one song I wrote.
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Where the tower meets the shore And the seals all take a rest
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There’s a place for weary souls Whose troubles end up blest
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Where the shingle froths the waves And aching bodies rove
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Lies a haven solace carved Down Macmillan Cove
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Don’t you worry, take your time Her voice is soft and calm
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Make your spirit heal yourself As the hero takes your arm
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There’s a sense of soothing seas The blue, the green, the mauve
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All this and the trouble flees On Macmillan Cove
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That’s me singing a song I wrote fairly early on in my cancer journey
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as a message of gratitude and thanks to the staff at the Cove
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for all the support they give and all the support they’ve given me.
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Now let’s talk about the Cove, a great place for support.
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When you go in through the Cove doors, there is a counter there
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and they welcome you in such a wonderful way.
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They are brilliant people there.
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They can help you find information.
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There is a library there of cancer support information.
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Everything from dealing with fatigue to just getting to know your cancer
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so you know what to expect.
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Also, there are leaflets there about things like walking groups,
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like cold water therapy groups, the potager.
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There’s the music therapy group.
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There’s also things like Tai Chi.
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There’s a very gentle yoga.
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You can have massage as well.
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They have some treatment evenings
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where you can come and sample some of these things as well.
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So why not make sure that you contact.
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If you can’t get there as well, you can phone them up
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and they’re very helpful as well because I expect
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if you’re living in Beaud, North Cornwall, various other parts,
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or maybe you don’t have good transport,
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then you might not be able to get there.
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However, that’s one of the things we also want to help with in this podcast
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is to give you a weekly voice talking about some of these issues
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and you can contact us through the website
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and maybe ask some questions.
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There is light at the end of the tunnel.
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I even know when you’re going through these things,
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you just got to try and look to the future.
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Now that voice there is Harry Glasson.
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Maybe you know the name, maybe you don’t,
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but surely you will know the song
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that everyone across Cornwall seems to sing at every event now
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and almost the new national anthem of Cornwall.
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Cornwall, my home was the one he wrote.
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I’ve stood on Cape Cornwall.
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I will be talking to him in an upcoming episode
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about his throat cancer and how he lost his voice box through it
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and how he has brought back his life of music following that.
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Let’s have a little listen to him now, though.
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And then, of course, in 2009, I was diagnosed with throat cancer
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and I kind of put a guide watch on the music
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and the tours as well at the time.
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So what sort of treatment did you have?
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I was very, very lucky really.
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All I had was surgery.
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They found that the cancer was only on the vocal cords themselves
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and they took the vocal cords away and that was it.
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And that interview is upcoming
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and we will hear him sing in the program.
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You’re listening to the Cornwall Cancer Cafe podcast.
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Now, this is a virtual cancer cafe,
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but if you look on the website,
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there is a list of face-to-face opportunities for support
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and you can find Macmillan running them across West Cornwall.
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There’s a lady called Carolyn Screech
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who runs them in North and East Cornwall
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and if you go across the River Tamer into England,
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at Derriford, there is also a centre where you can find support there.
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Here’s someone who can tell you an awful lot
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about the sorts of therapies available,
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particularly for the ladies who want to use cosmetics still.
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And if you’re in treatment, cosmetics can be a tricky thing.
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Here’s Amanda Wynwood.
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So I set up the Made For Life Foundation in 2008.
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It became a registered charity in 2010
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and it was actually just because I discovered
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that a lot of people living with cancer
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were being turned away from spas and salons.
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The figure at that time was 96% of people
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who wanted to have a massage were being turned away.
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So there was that part of it
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and then the other part was it was pre-the-co being built
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so there was absolutely nothing really in Cornwall.
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And they are based on the site of the Royal Cornwall Hospital.
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Well, not quite on the site.
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There is the Health and Wellbeing Centre really nearby
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and they’re based in there.
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Now, we’re coming to the end of this week’s podcast.
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I hope you found something worthwhile
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and you will follow us through the coming weeks and months.
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We are looking for a listeners panel as well.
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So if you want to give your feedback,
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say four times a year to what we are putting out,
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help us along the way because we need feedback
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because we would like to provide this service in the future,
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not just this year and to do that,
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we need to show that we are doing worthwhile things
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for you and for Cornwall
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and to make your life a little bit better if we can at all.
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And that is the big point because I know for a certain fact
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that I have sat at home on my own wondering
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what on earth is going on with me in my head, in my body.
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So it’s good just to have someone there
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with that life experience voice and that’s what I wish to give you
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and that’s the point of this.
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Find more information about us on our website
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and we will be back next week.
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Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund
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for supporting this podcast.
