Everything End of Life.
This podcast is dedicated to talking to experts and others about all aspects of death and dying. You know, that thing we don't really want to talk about!
As a hospice carer and former psychiatric nurse as well as writer and former Theatre director, I invite guests to talk about their roles in and what to expect in the last four weeks of life. What happens to the person dying, what help is there, what to do before and after the event.
Many of the families we go in to see have one thing in common and that is that they don't know what to expect. I thought that a Podcast may help and then discovered so much to explore that is of interest to people such as alternative funerals, what do Hospices actually do, what role do religions play?
So join me for the first interview as we begin this Podcast with Clinical Nurse Specialist Becky Rix where we grasp the nettle and discuss what happens to us generally in those last four weeks.
Time to explore "Everything End of Life".
Everything End of Life.
Embracing Life Through Cancer and Caregiving: Tracy Britten's Journey
When Tracy Britten rushed home from her 50th birthday retreat to find her mother had just been discharged from hospital during COVID lockdowns, she had no idea how profoundly this experience would reshape her life. Sitting amidst the tranquil surroundings of Earl's Cone allotments, Tracy shares the raw reality of caring for her dying mother at home – siblings taking shifts, promising never to leave her side, and witnessing a passing so peaceful they weren't immediately certain it had happened.
"I made a promise that I would not leave you," Tracy recalls telling her mother – a commitment that extended beyond death as she helped prepare her mother's body afterward, something many don't realize is possible. This profound experience of family reconnection during crisis became the foundation for unexpected growth.
Following her mother's passing, Tracy and her sons used a small inheritance to launch Britten's Bites, a food business that has become a family passion. Meanwhile, Tracy transformed her allotment into both a source of herbs for their cooking and a place to grow flowers specifically for people facing difficult times – a living memorial to her mother's legacy.
But Tracy's story takes an even more remarkable turn as she reveals her own cancer journey, diagnosed at just 42 when doctors discovered aggressive breast cancer hidden beneath what seemed to be a simple cyst. Through treatments, surgeries, and eventually genetic testing that revealed a rare PALB2 mutation, Tracy's experience has rippled outward to potentially save many lives, including her sister's through preventative surgery.
Now ten years cancer-free but managing ongoing treatment side effects, Tracy shares how nutrition became her secret weapon during recovery. Her experiments with beetroot, spinach and kale so dramatically improved her blood tests that doctors were astounded, reinforcing her belief in food as medicine – knowledge she now passes on through both her cooking and her son's interest in nutrition.
Listen as we explore how confronting mortality can transform us in unexpected ways, create deeper family bonds, and inspire paths of healing and growth that extend far beyond ourselves. Tracy's dream of someday creating a larger sanctuary garden for others facing difficult times perfectly captures her remarkable spirit – always nurturing, always growing, always finding beauty even in life's most challenging moments.
For those interested in what Palliative care looks like at home there is "The Last Kiss" (Not a Romance)
Available on Amazon now
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Kiss-Romance-Carers-Stories/dp/1919635289/ref=sr_1_1?crid=13D6YWONKR5YH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9._59mNNFoc-rROuWZnAQfsG0l3iseuQuK_gx-VxO_fe6DLJR8M0Az039lJk_HxFcW2o2HMhIH3r3PuD7Dj-D6KTwIHDMl2Q51FGLK8UFYOBwbRmrLMbpYoqOL6I5ruLukF1vq7umXueIASDS2pO91JktkZriJDJzgLfPv1ft5UtkdQxs9isRDmzAYzc5MKKztINcNGBq-GRWKxgvc_OV5iKKvpw0I5d7ZQMWuvGZODlY.fqQgWV-yBiNB5186RxkkWvQYBoEsDbyq-Hai3rU1cwg&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+last+kiss+not+a+romance&qid=1713902566&s=books&sprefix=The+Last+kiss+n%2Cstripbooks%2C107&sr=1-1
Hello and welcome to Everything. End of Life with me, jason Cottrell and guests, and my guest today is Tracy Britton. Hi everybody, there you go, hello. So, tracy, we've known each other for an age now, it seems, and I'm just going to say that we did do this recording once already, but it was just too much background noise. So now we're in the beautiful countryside, and what's the name of this allotment?
Speaker 2:This is, yeah, Earl's Cone allotments on the Essex Airfield.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we're surrounded by occasional plane noises, birds, scarecrows.
Speaker 2:The pigeon bangers Pigeon bangers.
Speaker 1:yeah, which is amazing, so I'm not going to link to it. It's a bit of a rickety pinch, so we're gonna go with that. Um, so, how did we get to know each other? Do you remember?
Speaker 2:uh, yeah, of course we can remember he's a dementia pill, to kick it in oh, I know, yeah, um, so mom has been really poorly and we've managed to get a home. You know, hospital, yeah, and we called the hospice to help us. St Helena, yeah, and they were just there, god sent. And one of the days you walked in.
Speaker 1:I walked in and said hello, can I?
Speaker 2:and I think my mum just knocked it straight away. I think she, she put her arms out like this. She did actually yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't recall it, I don't know it's. I think it's the voice, or maybe it's the voice, it's the and the unexpected.
Speaker 2:When you say I'm expecting the carers to come around, you generally expect two ladies to turn up in nice dresses yeah, exactly, maybe I think yeah, I don't even know if she was I think she got to the point that she didn't even care anymore, but she'd um, blocked out the awful hospital experience and she was in our own hide and you just really helped us because, um, we'd be doing a lot for caring. Yeah, I've got a bit of experience, so we were doing that and, oh, it just took so much pressure off us we're fine.
Speaker 1:We used to find that a lot actually, um, and we're having a little. This was the virtual ward that used to, uh, sometimes used to have. It has a same sort of thing, but it's a different, uh sort of department now, so our department's no longer there. Um, well, it's called the virtual ward and we used to go out into people's homes just to explain, first thing in the morning to help them get up and get started in the day, and then last thing at night to help them either into bed or wash down and that kind of stuff and the 24-hour care a single point oh, that was.
Speaker 2:That was amazing because it was all new to us a single point still there.
Speaker 1:That's you. That's brilliant, that's amazing and what a great idea. Instead of trying to phone up a GP, a pharmacist or whatever, phone single point and they'll try and sort it out for you.
Speaker 2:I think we used to ring up and go. We're waiters and we're not really sure and we don't know if it's serious enough. We don't want to disturb you, but and they were just like. They were like don't everything like that, and they'd send people out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really good, yeah, they are. They're an amazing um crew. Um, so your mum was in hospital. That wasn't the best of experiences. I mean, people have different experiences. I know a lot of people want to.
Speaker 2:If they're going to die, they want to die in hospital because they feel secure about all that medical stuff, and some people just don't yeah, so it was unfortunate the whole ward had been shut down because of covid um, it was my sister was sneaking in and it was a nightmare. There was no staff, no staff at all. So we, we were changing the beds, we were washing mum, we were just on it and luckily well, not. You know, I knew the hospital really well and had lots of links. So we were just on it and luckily well, not. Luckily, you know, I knew the hospital really well and had lots of links, so we were calling in other people from other departments to help us.
Speaker 2:It was difficult when they actually shut the whole wall down, that we couldn't get to her. That was when, you know, it was just she went downhill and at that point we didn't even know it was cancer and at that point we didn't even know it was cancer because they they had discovered she'd gone in there because she was being really sick, yeah, and um, the breast cancer had spread, but there was no tumor.
Speaker 2:It sort of spread to like an inflammatory right. So nobody had actually said to us this is for cancer, that's spread. No, no, no, we were saying, are you sure it's not for cancer? It could be. And they're like no, we don't know. And departments crossing, yeah, and that was really really difficult, but we'd actually said, well, look, this could be a complication. Yeah, but that was the difficult thing. We didn't actually know.
Speaker 1:So by the time she came out of hospital, how long do you think she'd kind of got before she got home and before she died?
Speaker 2:Well, she actually she went into hospital for a month and she'd come back from holiday and was violently sick and they'd taken her in and said oh, you know, it's just something, you know that's blocking her stomach valve and did all the tests couldn't find out.
Speaker 2:It's just something you know that's blocking her stomach valve and did all the tests, couldn't find out. And then she's, literally she caught COVID. I'd actually jetted away on a little retreat that I'd had booked for my 50th yeah, and she's got no go, you've got to go. And I filmed her when I was at the piece and watched the sunset and all that. And then, while I was away, that's when it all kicked off. She went downhill, the hospital went downhill.
Speaker 1:You must have felt really bad about that. It was awful.
Speaker 2:It was awful. I was at this beautiful yoga retreat and I couldn't get home. It was only five days. I couldn't get home because it was in the mountains, and so I was literally spent the whole of retreat on the phone to different doctors and various just. So actually it was lucky I was there, but we couldn't get to the hospital either, because they'd locked down the ward.
Speaker 2:So my sister actually had to deal with it a lot on her own and my brother had come up and I'd just say your sister's amazing as well, isn't she? I'm so lucky to have her, I'm so grateful for my brother and sister.
Speaker 1:I mean they just really stepped in and helped and yeah, it brought us back it brought us back together.
Speaker 2:So she got mum home the day that I flew back. So I flew back. We raced in the airport straight there. Mum had just got home, in the bed and we had all the family my aunts had come up, my cousins, everyone had mucked in. The neighbours had got a profiling bed sorted. She had links to care. It was amazing. And mum was sitting there and I ran through the door it was like something you see on the telly and she had her arms out and everyone was around her crying. Everyone cries. And I got there to see her because we didn't know, we just, and she lasted another 10 days, yeah, and we all moved in, my brother and my sister and my cousin it was a busy house.
Speaker 1:When we got there, it was a busy house, yeah yeah, we, we actually moved in.
Speaker 2:It was like being kids again and we moved in and we were eating together and we cared for mum and we did not leave her. We didn't leave her side. We took shifts every night and it was beautiful. It was hard, but it was lovely to be with her and promise her we would not leave her. She blocked out the hospital.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she kind of just forgot that that happened.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was gone but yeah, I mean, she was my kids came and helped everyone.
Speaker 1:When I met her, she was such a very positive person, did she?
Speaker 2:throw the panda at you.
Speaker 1:No, she didn't throw the panda at me.
Speaker 2:She had a kind of panda.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, no, no, she was just awesome.
Speaker 2:She was absolutely amazing. She was truly, truly amazing and inspired us. She's so tough and so strong and, yeah, really good.
Speaker 1:I'm going to ask you about the last few hours. How did they go for her?
Speaker 2:With mum. Do you know what? I sort of had a bit of a heads up because of working in care. I had a bit of experience in hospitals and care and we were up in the morning, we were sitting with her. She was already sedated and sleeping. We hadn't had much response, but we all took turns to hold her hands and be next to her. We didn't stop holding her hand at all. We were all three of us there with her and we had a TV on to hold her hand and be next to her. We didn't stop holding her hand at all. We had literally we were all three of us there with her and we had a TV on and she had like a good TV or something that she loved.
Speaker 2:And we were just watching it and chatting and my sister said to me Trace, you know you're not looking after mum. She's crying, you know, wipe her eyes because she's been running eyes. And I said actually, you know she hadn't gone cold, she hadn't jerked, she hadn't done anything to make me think oh, that was it. You know, when I've been with people before there's been a gasp or something.
Speaker 2:But mum did, and it was so peaceful. We turned around and I wiped her tear and I said do I'm not sure? Here my brother and sister come over and we're like we're not sure either. Is she sleeping? You know, it was a bit like that and it took us quite a while and we actually just stayed with her for an hour before we called anyone.
Speaker 1:We would call that a beautiful death.
Speaker 2:It was. It was so peaceful.
Speaker 1:Not everybody goes that way, no, I've never come across it.
Speaker 1:I mean I was really lucky with my mum. It's the same thing, you know, the weekend that she passed away on a Monday, but I was up at my wedding up in Scotland and we got the call saying you know she's going into organ failure. But she was at home, in fact, had nursed her for eight years, yeah, and so about four or five days no, three or four days before she passed away died she said do you want to, like you say, good morning TV. She loves her TV. She'd love to see you, jason, but just get out of the way. Tv first. Yeah, my mum loved watch TV. She'd love to watch TV. She'd say you know, it's lovely to see you, Jason, but just get out of the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tv first. Yeah, my mum loved her TV and then she didn't. On this one occasion she said no, I'm all right, turn the television off. First time in eight years, I think, during the day she went on TV and then she was another one gathered around and I had time to have a shower and get dressed and then we went and sat in the room. It couldn't have been more timely, actually. We sat down and in about 10 minutes we all said our goodbyes and we watched her last heartbeat through her nightdress and it was just like wow, okay, I think that's it then. And we all just sat there and, as you say, it was quiet.
Speaker 2:It would be similar to us yeah.
Speaker 1:Are. We were just sat there and, as you say, it was quiet. It would be similar to us. Yeah, are you sure? Yeah, I was looking at her heartbeat and going that stopped. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that stopped. Is it coming back? So, yeah, so that was a trick and of course, you know, then the emotions all come at you, you know, in waves later. Well, that's what I felt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were a bit like, oh, what do we do? What?
Speaker 1:do? We do now.
Speaker 2:You know, we just needed her with us for a while. So we actually just you know. I think that's really we called, but we just had no rush.
Speaker 1:you know, it is really important that people don't get a panic attack. Oh, they died. What do we do now?
Speaker 2:So it was just like she was asleep. Yeah, just, it was lovely. And then they when they did come to get her, it was quite a few hours later. They let me help package her up. But you know I lifted her in and we wrapped her and it was because I'd said I'm not going to leave you. I promise I'm not going to leave you. And I was so grateful that they let me do that. Yeah, and then I actually went and got ready and dressed the co-op.
Speaker 1:Right yeah.
Speaker 2:Did her makeup, did her hair. It was, oh, I felt so privileged because I didn't know that was something you were allowed to do.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they were so good. Like yeah, we don't get many people that want to do that, but I made this promise. I made a promise that I would do it.
Speaker 1:It was lovely. It's interesting you say that, that you didn't know that you could do that A lot of people. It's not something that is spoken about, is it?
Speaker 2:I don't tell you I had a chat with uh lee jessica from freedom murals.
Speaker 1:Oh I listened to that, yeah, and he put an interview and one of the things he said is uh, it's not regulated. You know, the whole thing is unregulated. So as long as you've got a big enough freezer in the back of your garden, yeah, you can have one here and a and a big enough and a hearse, you're in business. You know so. And and I was shocked about I don't know, six months, a year ago, there was a funeral home in Hull that was closed down and they had to recover 34 bodies because there was huge complaints. Basically, they were doing it just as a money-making scheme, which is a pretty heartless, you know. But how bad does it have to be if you're already dead and then your body has to be taken to a place of safety, you know?
Speaker 2:so I mean I actually contacted a one of my really good friends here at the allotment. Her sister works um in I think it's just in cardiff or somewhere that way yeah, in a funeral doing funeral directors, and I actually messaged her and said can you help me? What am I allowed? Would they think I'm really weird asking this? And she was like no, ask them. You know they can only say no, but they should say yes. And it was her that helped me. And then when I asked them, they did say, well, it's very unusual, but yes, of course you can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is a funny thing that we don't get to ask these things, because it doesn't come into our minds that we're allowed to do something.
Speaker 2:No, you think it's something.
Speaker 1:It's all very formal and in fact you don't even you know. That's another thing about freedom funerals, for instance. You know which is still going, although Lee has retired. You know you can. There's certain things you can't. Being buried at sea is a bit tricky, yeah it's like putting on the bonfire as well when I was when I was poorly.
Speaker 2:my children were little and they turned around and said well, when you die, mummy, we can just put you on the bonfire. Oh fine, yeah. And I said I don't think you'll now I don't think you'll.
Speaker 1:Now there are some rules about the whole thing, so yeah, now. Ok, so that was Mum and that was our introduction to each other, and we'd come to stay at a tough couple of houses.
Speaker 2:You've got a few friends.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and it was. You know. You were in health and health. I used to service the pub across the road from you so then, yeah, you knew my son because he's a chef yeah, because he's a chef and that it all clicked.
Speaker 2:We have so many people. So, ian, at the Gardens, you know yeah, yeah, ian, the best the people they link together yeah, and that garden centre, what's that?
Speaker 1:called it coppola coppola nurseries, isn't it? And that's ian ho in hell. Yeah, yeah, that's right, yeah, best manager I've known him for young, so I one of my children's books, uh, called the bucket by dj gaudrell. Go and get one from amazon, all right. Uh, his daughter, um, when she was, I think, about 11 or 10 or 11, she bought a copy of this book, the Bucket, which I wrote for my daughter, that's so lovely.
Speaker 1:And it's all got unicorns and Chinese dragons and all sorts of things in it. You know it's a proper kid's adventure book and she brought it and asked me to sign it and it was like twice the size that it was when she bought it because she fell through so much. That's a real compliment. That is lovely, yeah that was a real.
Speaker 2:You're so good. Yeah, no, I'm lucky, but now we see each other regularly because you come and deliver the oil.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I deliver cooking oil. We've got to say that to Britain's Bites. So tell me a little bit about Britain's Bites, because it's the two boys started it up.
Speaker 2:After the two boys started it up After mum died. Luckily she left a little bit of money and Nathan was a chef and he didn't really know what to do and we said you know what? Let's just do a family business. I'd get harebrained ideas. I said let's do a food business, let's just go and buy a trailer. So we didn't do enough research. Do research and got a trailer and Nathan and Lewis started it off a little side hustle yeah but quite soon after, um Lewis decided it wasn't really for him.
Speaker 2:yeah, um, and he wanted to go more into nutrition and education and bodybuilding. But Nathan at the same time decided that it was for him. Definitely it was an absolute passion and he wanted to expand the business.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he was like, oh. So I said, you know what, I'll help you, because we were all mucking in. Yeah, so now it's myself and Nathan that are running the business. Yeah, mate.
Speaker 1:And so every evening, Definitely a family business yeah.
Speaker 2:And Phil mucks in and what a stress, though. Yeah, and if his girlfriend helps, too, is he. And we've got events and, yeah, burger business, but it's all everything it's like he's. He's makes everything from scratch. Yeah, he sources local and, yeah, it means so much. So everything we do now is is linked and of mum, so the family is linked. They wouldn't have been able to do that if mum didn't have that little bit of money she left us to be able to start them off, and now he's doing good, very well. Yeah, he's hoping to get a van this year and do bigger events and further. Okay, we're busy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, people are booking us and every week we're getting booked in and I'm going to say you can find them on Facebook and it's Britain's Bites, but it's B-R-I-T-T-E-N S Britain's Bites yeah, we're on all socials we've got.
Speaker 2:YouTube now and we're on everything but yeah you know where to go yeah, we grow all the herbs, so the allotment here, um, I started when mum died because I wanted to grow flowers to give to people going off to give to people that are having a hard time. Yeah, because my dream was actually to have a plot of land and have it as a bit of a sanctuary. But I can walk people up here and we pick bouquets in the summer that's lovely and it's so quiet and then I grow a lot of herbs and then we use them in the cooking, and a lot of herbs here.
Speaker 2:So some veg, but not so many more. Lettuce and salads and, yeah, edible flowers the thing about that is this is all lettuce, all lettuce.
Speaker 1:I mean, the thing about growing lettuce, I found, was that you could buy it at Smart Batch Easy, but the thing I wanted to grow, which I found out about, was spaghetti squashes.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Now this is a strange thing, but it's just like a normal squash. But when you bake it it goes stringy on the inside you can use it literally like spaghetti.
Speaker 2:Squashes are great to grow up here Squashes, courgettes, pumpkins, everything. You can use it literally like spaghetti squashes are great to grow up in squashes, courgettes, pumpkins as I'm a great lover of cooking.
Speaker 1:One of those little things about squashes if you don't know it's a great tip is you don't have to peel the damn things, you just put them in the oven. Bit of oil, bit of salt on the top. Once you've had them, give them a wash and you can eat the skin. So you know for years. It's trying to appear on the light there. You know it's so simple.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've been a gardener for years now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I had allotments when the children were really little, yeah, and then just grew amongst my flower beds in the garden, got quite a big garden, yeah. But yeah, I just needed this sanctuary and I realised so many other people need it. So one day I'll get my plot of land and have my little sanctuary with me With some food.
Speaker 1:I mean you make such a great therapist. You know, just doing this.
Speaker 2:Well, I used to be a therapist, so I've had that background anyway Before I got sick.
Speaker 1:I was a therapist. Okay, what a brilliant segue into you. You've had your own troubles. So when did you first get an idea that you might have cancer or you?
Speaker 2:might have a problem. Oh gosh, I'm 10 years alive now, which is amazing because, um, there was I obviously I've had. My mum was diagnosed before me and my auntie, so we'd had breast cancer in our family, but, um, I didn't really have any warning. You know, there was no tumor, there was no, no lump as such. I literally was quite sly. I just had a cyst in my right side and it was digging in.
Speaker 2:I went to the doctor and said I was too young for mammograms. Go for your mammograms, everyone. I was too young so I wasn't on that radar and I just went to my GP and said look, it's really digging in. And she said, look, it's just cyst, you know it is what it is really digging in. And she said, look, it's just cyst, you know it is what it is, your age and stuff. She said do you want to go and double check? And you know where we refer you. So she referred me.
Speaker 2:I went to the doctors and the consultant and he said, yeah, it's just a cyst, you know it's fine. Oh, maybe with your history we're just, we're doing mammogram just to check. You're not really old enough yet, and so I was only 42 and so they did the mammogram and they drained the cyst, which was great. It was like it's big, no wonder it's digging in and underneath it had two types of cancer. It was like sprawling. So it wasn't a tumour as such, it was more like cloud that had spread all into my armpit. It was everywhere.
Speaker 1:It was a grade three when you found the helmet, it must have been like it was a miracle.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, they couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Actual radiologists couldn't believe it, because she said this is a miracle that you've come, and the chain of events I wouldn't be here. It was aggressive, I carried the genetic.
Speaker 1:Oh, tell me about that. The genetic, because this is sort of unusual as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I anyway fast forward, had all the treatment thrown at me, had mastectomy, all my lymphs taken out, uh, chemo radio, another lot of chemo, um, on and on and on, lots and lots of surgeries, implants in, implants out, you name it, and then, because they wouldn't, don't take both breasts off in colchester and it's difficult where you live and um and I and I was on a trial to see because they was like you're not BRCA, which is a genetic that everyone's heard of, but but it seems weird that your whole family have had this. You're so young. So I went on a trial under Great Ormond Street and Cambridge and um and that was held and they said look, it's come back negative, you're not carrying a gene. So I went ahead with more surgery to reconstruct my right side from my stomach, which I didn't have a lot of, but anyway, that's that you're welcome Really little.
Speaker 1:Yes, quite glady.
Speaker 2:It's better than having ribs. So it was just a little bit and I just needed even. But yeah, I had that. And then, after I'd had that done, it came back and they said actually we kept your samples and our testings got better. We found that you do carry a genetic called PALB2. Now this would have been carried down from male and female in my family, probably, we think, from my granddad, because he died of cancer very similar to the way mum died, and now my sister and my cousins and my children can all get tested because of this.
Speaker 1:It's amazing, isn't it? Just from 10 years ago to now, the advances that they've made, and even just by holding on to your sample, they made another advancement that they could find now.
Speaker 2:They said it's like finding a letter flicking through a book it's that difficult to find and the new testing found it and then, luckily, my sister had the test and it literally saved her life, because she then got a preventative surgery. So that means she's had a double mastectomy and she's had implants. So you wouldn't know.
Speaker 2:She looks amazing, but it's very traumatic, very traumatic and it's very traumatic, very traumatic and it's very personal, but 100% they found she would have got cancer Right, it wouldn't have been found for a while because it's very and all that has helped save her and my cousins and whoever else and you know whoever else, and both two my eldest son and my daughter have been tested and they don't carry the gene.
Speaker 2:But my middle son, lewis, has decided he's not ready for being tested yet. Oh okay. But with us it's male and female and it affects more than just breast cancer. It affects many other cancers too. There's lots and lots of studying. We're up in Cambridge and they use my family, they use our samples every year for the studies. Yeah, it's really good so and back.
Speaker 2:You're not just helping your family, but you know lots and lots of other families yeah, and mum helped because, um you know, obviously she was still alive and had cancer come back, so that used a lot yes.
Speaker 1:It's amazing You're going to be in a medical book somewhere sometime.
Speaker 2:All right, I'm just so grateful. I'm trying to keep myself, my mind healthy, eating healthy. It's important because after you've had cancer they don't tell you that 10 years down the line there's many, many side effects you have to deal with right, okay and my son started nutrition. I don't get it, mom. You do everything, you're so strong, you're so fit, you eat well, and I've got lots of other things going on at the moment, so I don't get it and and I said but this you know it's, it doesn't choose.
Speaker 2:you know you could just do as much as you can, but when you've got cancer, they give you this treatment to save you. They're not going to go. Oh, we're going to save you, but 10 years in the future, you know, you might have this still. It just evolves. I said so, you know. I'm just faking it, but I'm doing all.
Speaker 1:I can. Did I clock that you had a recent appointment?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So unfortunately they accidentally doing other tests, they found another tumor in my stomach, but the good news is that it's not spread to tissues around. It's not spread anywhere in my body and it's not related to breast cancer, which hooray is good, oh, that. So it's, something completely different. Yeah, but they're going to monitor me because it's small. If it's less than two centimetres, they try to monitor and see what it's doing, which to me, cancer world. That's good for me.
Speaker 2:I'd rather be on their radar yeah, definitely but I was having tests because I've got osteoporosis, which is to do with bones, and oh, it's bumblebee. Yeah the first ones, the first bumblebees are emerging.
Speaker 2:It's great to see them, yeah yeah yeah, and I've got that I'm dealing with. And then I've got very, very high cholesterol and it's all caused from my medication to keep the cancer away, so I've got to take that medication. But I do a lot of training and exercise to keep my muscles strong. Lots of swimming with weights Digging yeah, gardening, gym work everything keeps my muscles strong. Swimming, lots of swimming with weights digging yeah, gardening, gym work, everything. But you're, you can. You can only do what you can do. And I try and help other people and they say what are you doing? I'm like, look, I I try and go eat organic, yeah, and you know, eat like 18 to 20 percent. So I need 20% meat to try and have that balance. But it's doing everything she's got.
Speaker 1:Keep in mind, good too it's interesting about the organic thing. I just heard on the radio I think it was today or yesterday that somewhere like in Finland or Norway it's about 80% of stuff is organic and here it's about 1.5%.
Speaker 2:It's so expensive as well. Like you, the cooking. It's educating people to cook seasonally.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, I mean, I do love the cooking and I was really proud when my daughter moved out and came back for Mother's Day and she cooked her first roast at home for her mum and her grandma. Oh, so lovely and it was just perfect. She did it and I went oh, that's very good, except except for the cauliflower cheese. No, no, I taught her to make a roux. It's really easy to make a roux 40 grams of butter, 40 grams of flour, 140 grams of milk. Cook the butter and the flour, cook it off and then just gradually add the milk and then chuck loads of cheese in. Yeah, to taste, and that's fine. And what she did was just chucked it all in a sauce and stirred it and it came out the gloop. Did she save it?
Speaker 2:oh, she yeah she kind of brought it back we ate it.
Speaker 1:We did eat it, so that's all right I was lucky.
Speaker 2:I find Mother's Day and a lot of people find days like that really difficult. Yeah, and we're not a big celebration family either. I'm just in the moment and I just want to spend time with them. Yeah, but do you know what? This year, my kids pulled it out of the bag. Really.
Speaker 1:Tell me.
Speaker 2:I got flowers and then Nathan like. So they all spent time cooking. So I think Lewis did lunchtime and then Nathan Lewis and his girlfriend Millie cooked. Then Nathan and his girlfriend Izzy cooked a lovely roast dinner. Later on we had lovely walks. I had a huge bunch of flowers, balloons. I got presents. I was rather spoiled. I was like blown away.
Speaker 1:Does anyone know something you don't?
Speaker 2:No, I do wonder, and on top of that, because with helping Nathan with the business we're all like, he can't pay us. Yet you know, when you find something you don't mind not getting paid for, you know you're passionate about it. Yeah, and you don't mind not getting paid, for you know you're passionate about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah and he bought me a pair of trainers to say thank you, something to stand up in the trailer, something to wear there.
Speaker 2:Oh, so grateful. I do a lot of walking. Quite often I walk in 20,000, 30,000 steps a day with gardening because we do maintenance gardening.
Speaker 1:Is it difficult for you to sit still and do the interview? Oh?
Speaker 2:gosh, yeah, Lots of lots of mowing for us.
Speaker 1:One little hint, just so you know yeah, it's garlic, wild garlic, flower time of year. Brilliant. And don't worry, I've got some in my garden. I was going to say you can pick all the flowers. Yeah, we do. I've just made pesto, but with the flowers we put sweet. Jules' cooking. I'm giving Jules' cooking a plug on the internet and he does this little recipe of how to get the wild garlic flowers and it's brilliant because you need about four or five. First, the flavor it's just awesome and I do a beetroot and balsamic gel.
Speaker 1:And I just put the flowers around there looks so good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know I actually did a test. So when I was really sick in hospital um my blood so I was neutropenic, I had sepsis I was like so, so sick. I was in like shut in a bubble, no one could come in and the hospital food is difficult and.
Speaker 2:And at the time my husband and family were bringing in, I said get me beetroot and spinach and kale. I need it. And they're like what I was like I need it. I need it for my blood. And literally they were testing my bloods every single day and I was drinking the beetroot.
Speaker 2:Phil had made beetroot lollies, ice lollies, because I couldn't swallow I couldn't eat because I had all infections and so he had lollies I could lick and so beetroot, spinach, tomatoes, all that sort of thing. I was having smart soup with all the spinach in it and young kale, and they tested my blood and they were coming and going what are you eating? And I was like, oh, they're bringing in all this food and I said, well, I can't get this. It's hospital food. I said, but I need to get the nutrition in. And they couldn't believe my blood rocketed. It repaired so quickly and my oncologist was like what are you doing? I think this is truly amazing. I said I'm feeding my body for what it needs.
Speaker 1:It is underrated. No, no, no, it's really underrated. And you know, you talk to any dietician, I reckon, and they say they're probably quite disappointed that food is not seen as part of it. It needs.
Speaker 2:I literally did this. Uh, yeah, we're just by the airfield, but I experimented and it's so good for me because my kiss was young when I got sick. But now see louis um nathan's cooking, but louis is going into nutrition yes uh, really heavy uh, and he's so interested and he's like mum can't believe. You've been doing this for years. Yes, I've been trying to to get people to listen, but it's hard, life is hard, life gets busy and even I have your croissant.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, I mean yeah, I mean, you know I'm pure as though I am, I'll still take a kiss of a gun just because it's.
Speaker 2:It's all about balance, yeah, but you just do what you can do and grow what you can, and you know I will grow what I can here. I'm no way self-sufficient, because it's just not big enough.
Speaker 1:No, but yeah, one day maybe, you never know, you never know.
Speaker 2:Someone will donate me a big plot of land.
Speaker 1:A big plot of land this way, please. Big plot of land this way, please. Just need an acre, please. There are people out there with lots of unused land. I've noticed.
Speaker 2:I've tried. I've tried local, but it's very hard to get small off-carts. It's very difficult.
Speaker 1:Well, if anybody is out there, get in touch with me, that's what I want, so also what I will say, is that you can get hold of Britain's Bites on social media. You can also see clips of this little video, probably when I put it out on all sorts of different videos. But always leave comments if you can, because we're happy to share all sorts of things.
Speaker 2:We'll share it for you. On our business, we've got quite a few between us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's brilliant.
Speaker 2:I just think it's amazing what you're doing. You're helping so many people.
Speaker 1:Oh, I just can't stop talking. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I can't stop talking either.
Speaker 1:That's fair enough, fair enough. So listen, it's been great chatting again, and let's hope we've got this recording down this time. I'll cook and I'll bring food.
Speaker 2:Well, actually, if you time it right, we'll be able to cook at the allotment with some produce For everything that you grow.
Speaker 1:yeah, that would be awesome, wouldn't it? Okay, book me in.
Speaker 2:Oh, take care, Jase. Thanks for everything. No, my absolute pleasure.
Speaker 1:Let's go, stop the recording and we're just reconnecting. But that's all right, you can wave. That's fine, here I go. I'll just edit this bit out, leave.
Speaker 2:All right, I hope that works. Yeah, did we cut everything?
Speaker 1:I think we did this time. We got Britain's Bison there. That's the most.
