MORTAL AND STRONG - The Podcast

**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