Show Notes
Health psychology expert Dr Lauren Heathcote talks to Liz about the impact of breast cancer in our mental health and how to manage the dreaded scanxiety.
Find out more about Lauren and her team’s research here - https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/lauren-heathcote https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/entrust
Their paper on Scanxiety and ‘bracing for bad news' - is here: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-52747-001.
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More from So Now I’ve Got Breast Cancer
Rebecca Charlton is the voice of cycling on Channel 5, as well as a cycling journalist and author, and in the summer of 2025, she was diagnosed with breast cancer while she was breast-feeding her second child. She’s had to navigate presenting on TV whilst dealing with the aftermath of treatment and coming to terms with her delayed diagnosis, and I can’t wait for you to hear her story.
Did you know that after breast surgery your scars can become stuck and painful? This is where a good scar therapist can come in, and I wish I’d known this sooner after my mastectomy. Joana Pedroso is a trained cancer scar therapist who wants everyone to be able to move freely again and she explained why scars get stuck and what we can do about it.
It’s the elephant in the room that no-one talks about when you have cancer - the fact that your sex life can also take a nose dive. But there is support out there, and this episode I’m speaking to Instagram’s @cancersextherapist - aka Zoe Yessian - a registered Mental Health nurse and psychosexual and relationship therapist, who was diagnosed with breast cancer herself two years ago aged just 35. We discuss how cancer can affect our libido and desire and what we can do about it.
I hope this episode bring you as much joy as it did to me to record it - self-proclaimed cancer kicker, poetry prattler, sales director, photo-grapher, animal lover and nature bather (and possibly the world’s wonkiest qualified personal trainer) Dearbhaile O’Hale aka Derv turned to writing when she was diagnosed with breast cancer to help her process the experience. She was generous enough to share some of her poems with us in this special episode, and talk about her own story from diagnosis to now. I hope her words give you some comfort, or perhaps she will inspire you to write yourself.
How do you know what to trust online and even - dare I say it - in podcasts, when it comes to breast cancer? There is so much information out there nowadays including people claiming to have “cures” and alternatives to traditional treatments. That’s why I needed to get Consultant Oncologist and Chief Medical Officer for Macmillan, Richard Simcock, onto this episode to help us sift through fact and fiction.