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Sin Scéal Eile
87/365: Alan LaCasse, Co. Laois.
Life feels truly unfair sometimes. All Alan has wanted in life is a family of his own. After being abandoned at a train station in the UK by his mother when he was a child, he finally made his way back to Ireland and started his own family. He has 5 wonderful children, a wife and a 10 week old puppy called Elvis.
When Alan first reached out to me, he wanted to tell me his adoption story, that was November 2025. By the time I made it to Laois, Alan had received some devastating news. In December 2025 he started to get some worrying symptoms. He twinged his back while carrying his 5 year old autistic son and he also had blood in his stool. At the hospital he was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer.
The cancer has spread to his liver and bones. His back is fractured due to weakened bones, leaving him fairly bedridden. His life has been turned upside down and even with chemo he’s not sure how long he has left. All he wants now is to do everything as big and extravagantly as possible so as to leave his kids with the most amazing memories of him. He’s secured concert tickets for the older ones, hoping maybe they’ll get to meet their musical heroes and remember the night forever. He is also trying to figure out something perfectly ‘Mickey Mouse’ related for the youngest. In an ideal world he’d take them all to Disneyland. In an ideal world, his cancer wouldn’t exist.
Chatting to me today was exhausting for Alan, but he did it so that other people would take their symptoms seriously. More and more people under 50 are presenting with colon cancer. If bowel cancer is found early, it’s easier to treat and there’s a better chance of recovery.
Today is the start of Bowel Cancer Awareness month. Today’s episode was earmarked for my pal, Glenn Keating. We were to record his own story of bowel cancer on March 18th, but cancer took him sooner than we all thought.
Meeting Alan, hearing his story (so similar to Glenn’s), and publishing it on this day, was all purely coincidental.
I’m so grateful to Alan for sharing his story today.
Please see @bowelcancerireland for more information, get yourself screened regularly, and take all symptoms seriously.
Rx
Sin Scéal Eile - That's Another Story was hosted and created by Ruth Medjber, with sound by Ronan Lally. The podcast is produced by Dee Reddy at Poddle Audio with original music by Elaine Mai.
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118. 118/365: Mark Ó’Géaráin at Massy’s Woods, Co. Dublin.
20:37||Season 1, Ep. 118Mark is a storyteller. He held a position in the Dublin Leprechaun for 13 years, telling all sorts of folk tales, one of which he shares with us today. He’s a lover of sticks and unusual trees and is also sometimes a part time Santa (is there such a thing as a full time Santa?).Mark has a lovely cadence to his voice, as well as a sensitive kind of wit, which in turn makes him a great storyteller, especially one who represented the mischief of the leprechauns for so long. Rx
117. 117/365: Sorcha Durham in Dingle, Co. Kerry.
16:30||Season 1, Ep. 117Sorcha is a musician, a mother and a Kerry native (even though sometimes she feels like a bit of a blow in). She grew up being part of quite a different family than what was the norm in West Kerry in the 90s, but it’s something that she prides herself in these days. With both parents being uilleann pipers, her childhood was soundtracked by what she describes as intense and sometimes melancholic music, but also extremely Irish.With ten years under her belt as part of the band Walking on Cars, she now makes her own music, and lives a settled life, in her lovely home with an incredible view. Rx
116. 116/365: Zia Bergin-Holly, The Project Arts Centre, Dublin
17:33||Season 1, Ep. 116The stage is Zia’s life, not necessarily being on it, but lighting it up and designing the sets. She has a very cool job, touring around to different theaters, dreaming up lighting cues and figuring out how to tell a story within a small dark space. Zia wasn’t always Zia. She was once Aislinn, but as a very creative and strong-willed 3 year old, she decided to change it, making all her family and friends go along with it until she could finally change it officially. Rx
115. 115/365: Úna Harty, The Phoenix Park, Dublin.
17:03||Season 1, Ep. 115
114. 114/365: Wayne Marshall, Phibsborough, Dublin
18:08||Season 1, Ep. 114Wayne chose to meet in Phibsborough because he's a very polite man and thought he would make it easier for me to be closer to town. What we both discover mid interview is that we live about 20 feet from each other. His back garden looks into mine, our dogs clocked each other months ago, but yet we were oblivious. We could have done this interview in our garden! I was interested in meeting Wayne because he describes himself as just an “ordinary” man. He loves Bohs and the community he’s found there. He’s also recently taken up photography just “trying to find a hobby outside of going to the pub.” There’s a refreshing honesty and self-awareness to this statement, which to me feels a little extra-ordinary. Rx
113. 113/365: Christian Hoey in Castleknock, Dublin
24:56||Season 1, Ep. 113Who knew hitting up a random swing dancing lesson could change your life? Christian fell in love, head over brogues, as soon as he laid eyes on the burlesque star, Sorcha. He swung her off her feet in the workmans, now, as a family, they cut a fine figure. They embrace a rockabilly/vintage kinda look that makes them truly unique at the school gates. Christian has lived a life and a half, from delivery driving, to becoming a master barber and now a master spray painter (of airplanes no less). He’s a storyteller at heart, bringing me on a journey with his tales, but what his story really comes down to is a lesson we all need to learn. When to slow down, reset, rest and mind your mental health. Rx
112. 112/365: Loretta O’Sullivan, Ratoath, Co. Meath
24:45||Season 11, Ep. 112Redundancy can be a blow to many. Some choose to spend their money on holidays, home improvements, fancy handbags even. Loretta spent it on herself, in the most life affirming and positive way possible. She invested in her dream career, she built herself a workshop out the back of her house (sacrificing what little garden they had). She went back to college, learned some new business skills and “returned to the bench”. The bench in question is a goldsmith's bench and it’s where she feels most creative and free. From her workshop she creates unique pieces of jewellery that tell beautiful stories. Rx
111. 111/365: Lesley Bond, Monastervin, Co. Kildare
25:21||Season 1, Ep. 111I am absolutely fascinated by Lesley Bond’s story. We met in Woodstack Café, which is nestled away in the woods in Kildare and feels like you’ve been transported back in time, and after hearing Lesley’s story it makes total sense. Lesley once held one of the most coveted (and viral) jobs in Ireland. We’re all seen it, we’ve all dreamed of it. Herself and her (now) husband, got hired as the caretakers of the Great Blasket island in 2019. They lived for six months, without electricity, wifi, or even a fridge. They spent their evenings in the tiny cottage, reading books by candlelight. In the daytime they’d welcome visitors to the island, serving them cups of tea (heated by their wee gas stoves), having the chats and providing some rudimentary accommodation as well. Lesley’s new book explains it all (and is so beautifully written too). Rx
110. 110/365: Una Healy, Howth
17:49||Season 1, Ep. 110Do you remember the “guaranteed Irish” sign that you used to see on all the products, the little symbol that when you saw it, you knew the product was fairly sound and very Irish. A little mark you could trust. Well, Una Healy has developed a new mark, one that also helps consumers trust a product, service or brand. It’s the one that lets you know that a human has created the piece and that it hasn’t been AI generated.This little mark could be a game changer for artists (like myself) whose work sometimes drowns in a sea of AI slop. AI is everywhere and a lot of times it’s being used for the wrong purposes i.e. deception. Una saw a need for an indicator that when used by an artist or company, would ensure the consumer that what they were investing in came from a real human. It's a celebration of human ingenuity. I was very proud to sign up to Una’s ever growing global community of human celebration. As you’re probably aware, Sin Scéal Eile is very human focused. We tell real stories, in real voices, face to face, every day. It’s the most anti-AI generated project possible! Rx