The Teenage Years: Kaleb - Christmas on Treatment, Playing the Cancer Card and Entering Your Mind Palace - a podcast by Toby Peach & Alice-May Purkiss

AfterThoughts: The Teenage Years was created to make visible some of the invisible cancer stories from within the young cancer community.

We're back for episode FIVE! And we're joined by Kaleb. Kaleb was diagnosed with a pilositic astrocytoma (bless you) aka a brain tumour when he was 14, and experienced tumour regrowth when he was 19. Although we don't ordinarily talk about diagnosis on AfterThoughts, we do reference it in this episode, so we'll let you know Kaleb was diagnosed after a brain haemorrhage saw him collapse at the end of a school mountain climbing expedition in Morocco.  

He joined us to chat about the trauma of a cancer diagnosis (and recognising it as such), the relief that came with managing to squeeze in a few days at home in the midst of his proton beam therapy and the difference between acknowledgement of his experience, rather than acceptance.

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AfterThoughts : The Teenage Years is supported by Teenage Cancer Trust. Teenage Cancer Trust support those diagnosed with cancer when they're 13-24 and provide specialised nursing care and support to get them through treatment.

As ever, AfterThoughts deals with some conversations you may find tricky to listen to. If you need any further support, please don't hesitate to reach out to a friend, or find support from any of the brilliant charities online.

AfterThoughts is produced by Toby Peach and Alice-May Purkiss from Beyond Arts. Sounds by Kieron Lucas and Dinah Mullen.

Further episodes of AfterThoughts

Further podcasts by Toby Peach & Alice-May Purkiss

Website of Toby Peach & Alice-May Purkiss