Our latest Voice sharing her story and the wonderfully witty and beautiful soul Trish. Trish has multiple myeloma (extra medullary) which is a rare form of (incurable) blood cancer. After feeling unwell and then developing a non blanching rash Trish found herself under haematology being diagnosed with the rare form of blood cancer and needing a stem cell transplant. Trish shares with us how she navigated through the challenges of having a stem cell transplant, which the aim of treatment being to keep the cancer in remission for as long as possible. Still in remission presently, Trish talks openly about the impact of having an incurable cancer whilst being a busy mum of two and trying to embrace life and the simple things. Another unique interview full of how Trish finds joy in the simple things, nature and her family and how she approaches an incurable condition. Thank you to Trish for bringing your bubble energy and gentle humility to another impactful interview.

Scars of Gold is a health awareness campaign putting the spotlight on people facing their mortality; those living with incurable or life changing conditions at a young age. Founded by Dr Liz Murray and co-led with photographer Sammy Weston, this charity campaign aims to look at health inequalities with 2024/25 focusing on Women's Health.

For more information please visit the website. If you have any concerns about your own health, please always see your own GP/Healthcare provider.

#mortalandstrong #scarsofgold #healthcampaign #healthawareness #womenshealth #doctor #charity #charitycampaign #healthinequalities #invisibledisability #hope #strength #documentary #podcast #kintsugi #kintsugiforscars #art #cancer #secondarycancer #myeloma #multiplemyeloma #emd #emm #emdmyeloma #bloodcancer #stemcelltransplant #chemotherapy

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Introducing our next wonderful Voice, the lovely Emily sharing her journey with secondary breast cancer. Two years after being given the all clear following a lumpectomy for primary breast cancer, a trip to A&E led to an unexpected secondary (metastatic breast cancer) diagnosis. Emily is now 5 years on living with secondary breast cancer and has a very pragmatic approach to the journey. Emily has found that confronting her mortality directly has been cathartic and given her a sense of control back and approaches the topic with a sense of calmness, dark humour and honest reflection on the impact on her family. Another raw and honest conversation that touches on sensitive topics but raises an important insight into previously considered taboo discussions. Emily's love for her family and having a new focus on what's really important in life shines through in another poignant and valuable episode. Thank you to Emily for being one of our Voices.

Scars of Gold is a health awareness campaign putting the spotlight on people facing their mortality; those living with incurable or life changing conditions at a young age. Founded by Dr Liz Murray, this charity campaign aims to look at health inequalities with 2024/25 focusing on Women's Health.

For more information please visit the website. If you have any concerns about your own health, please always see your own GP/Healthcare provider.

#mortalandstrong #scarsofgold #healthcampaign #healthawareness #womenshealth #doctor #charity #charitycampaign #healthinequalities #invisibledisability #hope #strength #documentary #podcast #kintsugi #kintsugiforscars #art #cancer #secondarycancer #breastcancer

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Introducing our latest thought-provoking Voice providing a spotlight on more important topics of conversation; the wonderful and bubbly Maria. Maria first had primary breast cancer which responded well to treatment. A few years later Maria was found to have lung cancer which had already spread beyond the pleura of the lungs during the surgery and so was Stage 4 (NSCLC). Maria talks so much about such important social stigmas that need addressing; having been asked so many times within the healthcare and society where she 'was a smoker'. Maria was confirmed to have an underlying genetic abnormality which put her at greater risk of lung cancer, which also meant she was able to have a more targeted drug therapy. Now, Maria lives life to the fullest 'Live for today' and says she doesn't need a Living List because the most important thing to her is spending time with her family. Maria's love for for her family, passion for supporting the charities that mean something to her and helping people around her is so evident in this interview and we are honoured to have Maria as another one of our incredible Voices.

Scars of Gold is a health awareness campaign putting the spotlight on people facing their mortality; those living with incurable or life changing conditions at a young age. Founded by Dr Liz Murray and co-led with photographer Sammy Weston, this charity campaign aims to look at health inequalities with 2024/25 focusing on Women's Health.

For more information please visit the website. If you have any concerns about your own health, please always see your own GP/Healthcare provider.

#mortalandstrong #scarsofgold #healthcampaign #healthawareness #womenshealth #doctor #charity #charitycampaign #healthinequalities #invisibledisability #hope #strength #documentary #podcast #kintsugi #kintsugiforscars #art #cancer #secondarycancer #breastcancer #lungcancer #stage4lungcancer #nsclc

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*This episode was recorded on location at the start of the campaign before we had professional audio equipment*

Introducing another wonderful Voice to the campaign, and Sophie is sharing her journey with secondary breast cancer. 6 years ago Sophie was a mum, working and after feeling tired for a year then went on to find a craggy lump. Initially diagnosed as primary cancer and told a double mastectomy was all that was needed (no chemotherapy or radiotherapy) Sophie was discharged. However two months later Sophie was then told she did in fact have multiple metastases to the liver, pelvis and spine. At that point Sophie was told it was incurable and likely had 2 years to live. 6 years later Sophie is living well and travelling and making every day count. We discuss the dangers of being told a predicted 'time frame' when given a secondary diagnosis, because whilst she is grateful for far exceeding her original given time frame, this comes with the counter issues of constantly feeling like living on borrowed time. We also discuss how the importance of asking for a second opinion can be life changing in terms of trusting in the care being offered and treatment plans. Thank you to Sophie for sharing her story, where she finds strength and hope and her Scars of Gold.

Scars of Gold is a health awareness campaign by the charity Mortal And Strong (Charity No. 1209448) Founded and led by Dr Liz Murray, with photographer Sammy Weston. For more information please visit our website.

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Voice No. 51 is also our Scars of Gold photographer and campaign co-director - the wonderfully bubbly and positive Sammy Weston. Sammy's journey with chronic illness began when she was 11 years old and is a story that until recently Sammy has struggled to talk about publicly because of the social stigma of disease. Sammy was still only a child when she developed meningitis which then led to significant post-infection complications seeing her housebound for several years having to be home schooled. Consequently Sammy missed out on the majority of her teenage years and what is often a crucial developmental stage of someone's life and finding their self identity. Meningitis is a life threatening infection around the brain and spinal cord and left Sammy with life long complications. When Sammy struggled to recover fully it took years of trying to advocate for herself to eventually get a diagnosis of ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. A post-infection autoimmune response which is only now since Covid becoming a more understood complication but still carries significant stigma in society. As a result of the devastating impact of the infection and complications, the inevitable toll on Sammy's mental health became another secondary complication.

Sammy talks openly and honestly about the stigma of chronic disease and having an invisible disability, on how there is not a day she does not feel limited by the pain, immense fatigue and other ongoing effects. However Sammy's eternal optimism and hope shines through and she shares how she manages to find a way to listen to her own body to continue doing the things she loves. Whilst recovering from being housebound Sammy found a love for photography which helped her confidence grow and re-integrate into society. This eventually led her on the path to finding Mortal And Strong, going on to become our photography and campaign co-director. Sammy shares how through the campaign she has grown in confidence at masking less, feeling more open at sharing the daily effects of brain fog, fatigue, and other symptoms which for so long so many people try to mask for fear of judgment. Sammy's journey can resonate with so many, particularly how the mental toll of chronic fatigue can be grossly underestimated but does not mean you have to lose your identity and that there can be hope still found.

Thank you to Sammy for sharing her story, being another essential Voice in our campaign (and for being our amazing photographer at bringing the Scars of Gold series to the impactful collection it is proving to be!).

For more information on anything discussed in this episode, please visit our website.

Mortal And Strong is a registered charity (No. 1209448) providing education and support for people facing their mortality - those experiencing life changing/incurable conditions at a young age. Scars of Gold is our debut health awareness campaign sharing messages of hope and strength. Founded by Dr Liz Murray.

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Introducing Voice No. 50 as we hit the halfway point through Season 1 of the Scars of Gold health campaign. At the half way point we share the founder of Mortal And Strong - Dr Liz Murray - and her story. Liz's chronic health issues began at the age of 18 when, just as Liz began University to study Medicine, on the road to becoming a doctor, Liz lost the ability to walk and found herself in a wheelchair by the age of 19. Liz shares the classic decade-long tale of having random symptoms and medical problems overlooked or dismissed, despite needing a very rare surgery on both her hips and a year long process to learn to walk again, before eventually getting her diagnosis. Liz was eventually diagnosed with multiple autoimmune conditions include Lupus SLE and Stage 4 Endometriosis with significant bowel and bladder damage and diabetes inspidus, following a 3 year process of having 6 miscarriages and multiple surgeries. When Liz was finally diagnosed and fell pregnant, further inequalities in health led to a premature traumatic delivery of her son which resulted in her first experience of mental health - facing PTSD and Postnatal Depression. It was whilst recovering from this with a severely unwell premature baby, facing the stigma from society whilst experiencing PND, that Liz began to formulate an idea of using art to share messages of hope and strength, which 5 years later would become the charity and campaign that is Mortal And Strong/Scars of Gold.

Liz returned to work as a Dr for the pandemic, having worked for over a decade as a medical doctor, predominantly in Emergency Medicine. However Liz had to step back from her clinical-facing role in 2023 because of her incurable health conditions. Her autoimmune conditions are incurable, the endometriosis means she has no function of her bowel and bladder, was forced into menopause at 34, and faces a very uncertain future of reduced mobility, chronic pain, kidney damage and multiple organ dysfunction. Her autoimmune conditions leave her immunocompromised, losing the vision in one eye and hearing in one ear. However despite all this, Liz is a fierce advocate for not letting a diagnosis define you - for embracing life to the fullest and not letting the stigma of disease and prejudice of society hold you back from living an authentic life. Liz strongly advocates for awareness and education of the impact of chronic health conditions whilst now leading the charity Mortal And Strong, turning her own journey personally and professionally into something that can help others.

For more information visit our website www.mortalandstrong.com

Mortal And Strong is a UK registered charity (1209448) presenting its debut health awareness campaign Scars of Gold. Founded by Dr Liz Murray, photographer Sammy Weston.

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**Trigger Warning - Sensitive conversations discussing end of life reflections.**

In this one-off episode we revisit Voice No. 1 from the 2024 campaign. The decision to revisit Amy's journey at this point was after careful consideration with Amy, who is also a Trustee for the Mortal And Strong charity. This episode was filmed from a Norfolk hospice where Amy is currently in the final weeks of her life, after reaching the end of the treatment options available for her secondary breast cancer. Amy's fierce messages of hope and strength from her first interview still resonate, and she still has such hope and positivity even in these final weeks. Amy is fiercely passionate about addressing the stigma and taboo of society not wanting to talk about end of life, and so wanted to be interviewed at this stage of her journey to help shed a more positive life on how nearing the end of life can be done well.

Amy has been in treatment for secondary breast cancer and sarcoma for 4 years. Initially triple positive, in the last 6 months the disease had spread to her lungs and switched to triple positive. When we first filmed Amy in March, Amy was one of the first voices to be interviewed and spoke of the importance of finding positivity in each day and finding a way to live life well in the precious time one has. Over the last 6 months Amy believed she still had several years of treatment left and was even accepted for a place in the London marathon next year. In the last month Amy lost her cousin and mum to cancer within weeks of each other before discovering herself that her disease had spread within her lungs and had become resistant to treatment.

Amy is presently in a hospice and has experienced all the grief stages, and is a fierce advocate for how her approach to her mortality over the last few years has brought her to where she is now - a place of peace, calm, in control and now making the most of every day whilst in a hospice. Amy is passionate about changing the stigma of palliative care; that palliative care services are there to maximise and improve the quality of life for someone with a chronic/incurable condition. They have helped build a relationship with her over the last few years and allowed her to travel and make the most of her time with her family. Amy strongly believes that this has helped prepare her so that now the time has come for a hospice, the team know her well and Amy was not fearful of entering the hospice but actually grateful and content, feeling safe supported and at a place of peace. In the interview we discuss how 75% of UK hospices are funded by charities rather than the NHS, and how the stigma of palliative care services, the fear of hospices prevents more people from accessing the enormous benefits that these services have to offer in providing a positive, controlled and calm journey when the time is needed.

Our immense gratitude to Amy for being a Voice for our Scars of Gold health awareness campaign, a trustee of the charity, being an incredible friend to so many people and a fiercely strong beacon of light for always managing to find joy in the hardest of times. We support Amy in her hope that by sharing this interview on such an emotive topic, will help raise awareness on the options available and support for those who are approaching this stage of their journey.

Mortal and Strong is a registered charity and presenting our debut campaign Scars of Gold™️. A health awareness campaign using art to shine the spotlight on women facing their own mortality - those affected at a young age by a life changing illness or disease but sharing messages of hope and strength. Founded by Dr Liz Murray, Photography by Sammy Weston. Charity No. 1209448. For more information visit our website.

#mortalandstrong #scarsofgold #kintsugi #art #artist #doctor #charity #campaign #womenshealth #cancer

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This is a special episode - a recording of an interview with Dr Liz Murray on how Mortal And Strong came to be, and where it is heading and the vision of the team. A special one-off as we reach 50 of the 100 Voices in the 2024/25 Scars of Gold health awareness campaign.

7 months since the first podcast episode was released we are now half way through our first campaign. Mortal And Strong is a registered charity, founded by Dr Liz Murray after having to leave her career as a doctor for over 10 years due to chronic health issues.

In this episode Liz reflects on the rapid growth of Mortal And Strong, along with reflecting on the journey of interviewing 100 women for the Scars of Gold campaign...the highs, the lows and the important messages learnt from the incredible women met along the way.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.