Who went missing in lancashire eight days ago, urge people to � keep an open mind about whats happened to her. Earlier this week police in england said they thought shed fallen into a river. Youre watching bbc news. Now its time for you, me and the big c. Cheering and applause. Hello everyone. Good evening. Welcome to you, me and the big c live. Woo. Hello. Im proud founder of girlsvscancer lauren mahon. And he is steve bland, who will always be known as steve bland. If you have just started listening, you are so 2018. Where have you been . But we have covered a load of topics and you might find them helpful, or a loved one might find them helpful. Weve spoke to all sorts of incredible people you can find it where you get your podcasts. We, tonight, arejoined by actress victoria ekanoye. You may recognise Herfrom Gracing The Cobbles of Coronation Street or National Favourite the royals. And since her diagnosis of Breast Cancer in 2021, our wonderful victoria has opened up about her experience and the importance of breast health. And joining victoria, weve got a man who probably needs no introduction to us, because hes very much part of the story, but he might need an introduction to you one of our favourite oncologists, hes the christies dr sacha howell. Sasha, you actually have been a friend of the podcast for a very long time because you treated our rachael, didnt you . Yeah, i was involved with the team that treated rachael. I was talking to steve before we came on i actually only met steve and rachael twice, during herjourney, both times to give her bad news, which was not great. Not great for any of us. And more recently, people have seen you in the press and The Public Eye because you also looked after the amazing Sarah Harding, and we wanted to talk to you a little bit more about the Sarah HardingBreast Cancer appeal that youve been working on towards funding and research. Can you tell us more about what thats funding . Yeah, thanks. The research is, i think, quite pertinent to tonight. Its about young women. Its trying to identify who is going to get Breast Cancer at a young age. We know screening starts at age 50 47 at a push but a lot of women develop Breast Cancer before that age about a fifth of all cases occur before the age of 50 so, theres already Family History clinics out there for women whove got a Family History, but most women who develop Breast Cancer dont have an Family History, cancer dont have a Family History, so our project is trying to look at those risk factors and try to build them together in a model and then, see if we might, in the future, have a system where by age 30, all women would have a Risk Assessment and those that were at increased risk would then actually have some screening and some opportunities for prevention. Can i get a round of applause for that . Cheering and applause. That is. Well, wouldve helped me, it would have helped you, victoria, it wouldve helped many people in our audience. You were diagnosed with Breast Cancer in october 2021, werent you . Yes. I was Breast Feeding my son he was six months old at the time and its so hard because i think, at that point, whether its because you are Breast Feeding or because youve a baby, you assume that all those changes i are because of the hormonal changes and that kind of thing thats going on. I dont know im the fifth person in my family to develop Breast Cancer and im also a patron of prevent Breast Cancer, i so i guess im grateful maybe thats the wrong word to use but i am grateful the experience i have of it really pushed me to go and get it checked. Thats amazing. Thankfully, i caught it really early because i went straight in. They diagnosed me with dcis, i which is ductal carcinoma in situ, which basically means that the milk ducts have turned cancerous. And i also have sickle cell, so i had to have a full body Blood Transfusion before the surgery, which made us have to wait. I l so in total, it was about eight i weeks from diagnosis to surgery. By the time i had the surgery, the 4cm had become 7cm. Theyd found Micro Invasion and then micrometastases in my armpit. In eight weeks. So, i dont know how its possible because dcis. Is supposed to be noninvasive, but it did~ and i had to get three opinions to get my diagnosis, so my main message always is to advocate for yourself | you know your body. Better than anybody. Yeah. Before we let you go, because we could talk to you all night but unfortunately, we dont have the theatre all night, id just like to ask both of you sacha, like, cancer has come so far in the last five years since we have been recording. What are the things that excite you in terms of Cancer Treatment for the next five years . And then, id love to ask victoria afterwards what do you hope for the future of Cancer Awareness . So, what i suppose wouldve been called the silver bullet. There is a lot of talk out there about immunotherapy but i am not an immunologist, so ive got to be very careful. But in terms of, you know, the what used to be called the magic bullet and i will get told off by any other oncologists who are listening to this but its an antibody like, for example, herceptin that a lot of people have heard of goes straight to the cancer cell, binds on to the protein. But instead ofjust being the antibody, its got chemotherapy all over it, or another drug all over it that actually is then better at killing the cancer cell, and these drugs are showing some really great promise in Breast Cancer at the moment. Thats great news. We love that. Is this something that is being worked on or something that is out there now . No, theyre out there already. Theyre out there and theyre just Getting Better and better. Thats exciting. Thats amazing. Thats pretty cool, isnt it . Yeah, it really is. Victoria, what is your what are your hopes . I guess we leave the medical side of things to you guys. I think its, for me, its more about us as individuals. As i said, being advocating for yourself in every aspect of life but your healthl is ultimately the number one. Just really tuning into. Yourself, because then, thats half the battle. And when you get that news, you know where you are. Yeah, i agree. Well, thank you so much for our lovely first guests, everybody. Cheering and applause. Thank you so much guys. Thank you. Take your seat enjoy the show. Someone� s who has supported us from day one is a wonderful man who was on air with our darling rach when he started on five live, so were going to get the lovely tony livesey up here from five live. Come on, tony. Applause. Youre on our stage now. Youve interviewed us a few times, it is our turn now. Yeah scoffs. Just tell us a bit about your own cancer story with your mum and everything, just. Yeah. Well, it feeds into this. My mum died from cancer when she was 42 in 1977. It was so 1970s, they didnt diagnose it until too late. I could go on for hours, but my family chose not to tell me she even had cancer. So, the phone went on a friday night and my mum was dead, as far as i was concerned. I was 13. So, ive got loads of issues about anyway, all that, so i did a series for five live called losing mum, which dealt with how children deal with that and what should happen and what didnt happen then, and rachael had the idea for the podcast at the same time, so it was all kind of symbiotic. I talked to her, she talked to me, and thats the way it went, really, and she educated me beyond all belief about talking honestly about cancer. Id say things on air and shed glare at me i mean, you know that i was her Radio Husband and i only got half of it. Laughter. But she could deal with situations, rachael, and shes what youve done, you three and four, is just absolutely incredible, i feel. I said to you earlier, steve, its like rachaeljust suddenly said, Marvel Avengers assemble and shes got together the best cast. Its incredible, isnt it . Because if you look at the jump from ive got a kind of similar story. My mums mum died before i was born and the family didnt know until a week or two before she died that she was even ill. And to think, you know, in not actually that long, weve come to the point where people are giving up their wednesday evening to come and hear us talk about cancer. Yeah. It feels a big jump, that, isnt it . Ive talked to you often on air, you guys, and debs a load, and rachael, and the archive is such an immense a treasure trove. Out of all the podcasts the bbc does, ive got friends now who are going through cancer and theyre going right back to the start and listening in. One of the other things that was useful to me and specifically with rachael was i remember vividly the day she said to me, im thinking of writing a book. And she was full of self doubt shell have gone through all this at home with you when she was, you know, will freddie. You know, what am writing it for . , etc. And i was able to channel me. Ive got have one video of my mum, its on a little cd, and shesjust looking at the sea. And i always remember my uncle arthur saying, your mum loved the sea. And i didnt know that. And ive latched on to thats the only thing i know my mum loved, the sea. So i said to rachael, write everything down. Everything youve ever thought, everything youve ever watched, every you know, freddie will lap it up when he gets older. And i felt, you know, that was very cathartic for rachael, writing that book, i believe. Can i ask, because obviously you knew rachael before and during Cancer Treatment. Did you see Rachael Change in any way once she started the podcast . Was there anything you saw in her . She was already a great broadcaster, she became a better broadcaster. She was such a natural broadcaster but she she knew her own mind. So through that podcast, you know, like were put on earth to do one thing well probably in our lives and we all get remembered for that. She was put on earth to produce that podcast, put you lot together, and save peoples lives. Notjust their lives, but their Mental Health as well, by allowing them to talk about things, so ijust saw rachael grow as a woman and as a mother and as a wife and as a colleague and, you know, shejust wasnt here long enough, thats the only thing. That is very. Tell us a little bit about the about the day of deborahs funeral injune of last year, if you would. Well, vicky, isnt it, yeah . I was speaking to vicky earlier on and we were crying together. So, what it was, i got invited to debs funeral and ijust thought absolutely long and hard about it because whenever id spoken to debs on the radio and i did the last Radio Interview with debs, when she was in her garden at home, and i said, im not putting the phone down because i thought i didnt want to finalise everything, so we hung on it was like, you put the phone down. No, you put it down. Anyway, so, i was invited to the funeral and i agonised about it and ijust decided not go because i thought, debs. If i could say to debs, should i be at your funeral with everybody else, or have i got this platform on the day of the funeral to be able to say to reiterate her message . I think i said on air, you know, im not at the funeral. Im here to tell you to check your poo. And vicky told me and, i mean, youre coming up later, so you could tell this story better than me but she basically said she was leaving the funeral, heard me on the radio and it was very emotional for people who were at the funeral. And subsequently, about two or three days later, we got a guy on an Ambulance Driver who said he was taking someone to Hospital Subsequently whod heard me on the radio talk about what to look for and all the symptoms to look out and hed said, im here because of that. So that, to me, debs kind of, radiating all the good vibes. But i felt, i agonised and felt quite im good on guilt. Laughter. Whoa and i felt guilty for ages after not going to that funeral. But especially after speaking to vicky today and that Ambulance Driver, i feel as though thats what debs wouldve asked for. It sounds trite. No, no she wouldve. She wouldve i mean, listen. There was enough of us there wailing like banshees on her behalf. Its what she wanted. She wanted tears, didnt she . She got them, yeah. She got them. But i think what you did for our deb was exactly what the whole reason deb did what she did was to save lives, to make a difference, and the fact that you were able to do that in that show and thats just one person you know of in that ambulance. Yeah, yeah, exactly, and but that goes back to just the job youve done and were all here to blow smoke tonight because. Sings thank you but. Laughter. The job youve done i knowjust somethings occurred to me which id forgotten but a really good friends of mines wife developed Breast Cancer cancer, subsequently had a double mastectomy, and ijust put her in touch with rachael. Rachael said, yep and kind of, rachael personally counselled her. She found the time to do that. Do you know what i mean . And so, with that and the public work she did, its astonishing. Do you think all of this has changed the way that you talk about cancer on air now . 0h, massively. I think its changed the way the whole Country Talks about cancer i feel, anyway because i grew up in a background where, ive just said, nobody said it was about four hours after my mum died when all the relatives were round the house that my auntie finally told me shed died of cancer and even then, i think it was the c word, it wasnt cancer. You know, itsjust unthinkable in this day and age and all power to you guys for doing that. Someone had to change move the dial, change the conversation. And its now so obvious. Its like, why didnt we do that . But that thats the beauty of what rachael dreamed up and you guys did with her and debs, is you moved that dial and itjust needed doing. Applause. Ok, now, ladies and gents. Its one thing to talk about cancer as we do, its another thing altogether to make a Comedy Routine all about your stoma. Were gonna get her back up now for some more of those stories about whats been up her bum. Laughter. Sarah mills. Applause. The jokes wrote themselves, lauren. Like, when they tell you that theyve seen something angry looking up your bum and youre like, what is it, peering down at you . Whats it cross about . Was it like this . Yeah, yeah like, is it wrinkled and gnarly and, like, is it waiting for a bus . I dont know. Like. Laughter. And, you know, and and yeah, like, having colonoscopies, i do encourage everyone to get a colonoscopy if youve been scheduled for one. Like, dont be scared of them because they are quite funny at the same time. I mean, you talk about shining light in a dark. Laughter. How did the audiences react . Because maybe, you know, it was touchy for some people or its quite edgy for maybe some. . Yeah, its funny. What ive found is that i. I dont talk about cancer on a Saturday Night in front of, like, hen dos and stuff like that i, so i have to, like so this has been a beautiful time, like a beautiful audience to do comedy to because you guys are, like, ready to hear about what im talking about. But i have, like some i have a comedy set that has no cancer in it, i have a comedy set that is all cancer you know, my i did an hour show last year that was all cancer, but that was the point of it, and then, i have a some that, like, ease people into it gently. Gentle cancer. Like a colonoscopy. Have you found it therapeutic, in terms of dealing with yours . I think i have, actually, because i feel very at peace with whats happened to me. But possibly thats because ive come out the other side. I dont know if id find it so easy to keep talking about it if i was still being treated. Im not sure. Like, i didnt do a lot of gigs while i was being treated. I actually did do one gig the night before my surgery and i got the entire audience to say goodbye to my bum hole. Laughter. Thats nice. It was its last outing. Thanks for doing everything tonight. Applause. Oh, thank you you have been amazing. Im off now. Yeah, you can go. Enjoy, darling thank you so much. Anyone whos ever listened to our podcast or actually read a newspaper, watched the television will know that lastjune, our beloved deborah died. And were really lucky because joining us today to talk about our deb are two people who know her better than anybody else and its her brother and sister. Can you welcome ben and sarah up on stage, please . Cheering and applause. We want to know, in a room full of people who probably think they know a bit about your sister you know, we knew deb for four or five years, you know, but you guys, you obviously go a little bit further back than that. Just tell us a little bit about your sister. What was she like as a sister . Shes always been the same and i dont think cancer changed her, actually, either, so, you know, that was the nice thing. It was her personality from when she was i mean, i guess i didnt know her as a baby, she was a couple of years older than me. Laughter. Its always been her. Shes always has to go and do something more. She never settles for. Singing all singing, dancing. Singing, dancing, legs up here, you know . Im just thinking back on bouncing on the trampoline here. Could be taken the wrong way laughter. Like, yeah, shejust anything she did was to the best. She always set the bar here and then | set us The Challenge to try and beatl it and i think the tech side i and the geeky side came out of the cancer, id say, but she had the teacher in her for, like, forever, so i think its the Teacher Aspect that would make her want to dig into more i or learn more and kind of Make Surel Everyone Else was coming along with the journey with her. You know, from a when we were kids, i remember we were actually watching some videos the other day of kind of the gymnastics and stuff and shed always kind ofjust try new things and just do it, basically, and kind of force us in, you know . Could we talk a little bit about, you know, fast forward to the rubbish stuff, the cancer stuff. Like, what when did she first articulate to you guys that she wanted to create bowelbabe . And what were your reactions . Were you, like, all for it or were you a bit like, oh god . I think itjust happened. Yeah, to be fair, i think| when youre really close to something, you kinda forget that its going on so, to be honest, you kind of it wasnt until really this well, last year, that kind of things you realise yourself the impact, | like, yourselves, the podcast and What Debs Engagementl was really like. I think to me, she kind of wasjust using it as good outpost and engagement with the community but im not one for very good social. Media, so you dont really geti the kind of impact that she has when youre just kind of seeing her on a sunday lunch or what have you. I it yeah, i dont kind of feeli like there was a point in time. It think itjust kind of organically grew over time. Why do you think she did why do you think, you know, a lot of people have cancer, a lot of people use social media. Why do you think deb just caught peoples imagination and just became such a big story . I think itsjust her relentless acceptance of talking about things so frankly. I think she just did what she wanted. I didnt really listen to anyone if she got told not to and kind ofjust went about thing her own way, really. About things her own way, really. I always kind of well, we all did we told her she needed to rest, but i think we kind of understood, and you guys and i think at the end of her life that became even more apparently clear that debs way of surviving and getting through was by doing and having the next thing to focus on and go, go, go. Like, i i mean, deborah achieved more in her last, what was it . , seven weeks. Yeah, crazy. Than most people ever do in their life i mean, she showed us right up the best selling book, clothing line, became a dame, raised a few million. She likes setting the bars for us. Sorry, can we talk about the dame . Shesjust kind of said, there is no way youre going to beat me on this one. Laughter. Weve just got to give it to her, really. Yeah, i wanted to talk about the damehood because you got to meet prince william, who is your doppelganger. Laughter. Yeah, apparently i dont get it myself but. Yeah, you know, as what did debs describe him as . A really good bloke. It was a pretty surreal day, i guess. You know, it goes to the, you know, literally touching the nation and kind of what her and yourselves have done on this. It was a pretty crazy few days. Whats your kind of abiding memory of your sister . Thats a good question. Have you got kind of an image or a great time that just think back and. . Its not actually the i cancer time, i think. Its i think itsjust like no, like, specific image. Its kind ofjust the annoying but very caring big sister. I laughter. You kind of make sure that you kind of live everything really well but make sure youre still doing the right who kind of keeps i you on the right track but makesj sure you are swerving either way and would kind of force us into new experiences, i think. I was gonna yeah, its the always doing something fun. I think her and i were were so different. I remember when we were driving i was driving here somewhere bicester. Yeah, obviously laughter. Bicester. Shes our ways of shopping are so different. Shes like, i just dont get how were related. Laughter. Its like, no. But ijust love, like, we did the running like, we did lots of running together. Just go on random, like, ad hoc adventures, like, im bored. I think the spontaneity of her, really, is how i remember her. And just her laugh. I think, bits of the podcast. Oh, the cackle. At the beginning, yeah. No, its huge. They were magic, werent they . Well, we adored your sister everybody here adored your sister. Thank you so much for talking to us. Thank you so much. We love you guys. Applause. Sighs. Now, listen. Applause continues. There is a couple of guys who we really want to get on because theyve been really a big part of this story from day one, havent they . I mean, were the talent. Laughs. Who brought her . We need to get mike and al on because theyve have been backing this thing since day one. They are the brains behind every episode. They make us sound a lot better than we are by editing out the cock ups, so please welcome al and mike. Cheering and applause. Is there one, like, memory from the pod that youd look back and you think, that was a great episode . The marathon. Yeah the marathon one was amazing. We got down from salford to london, on time, fine. | there wasjust loz and debs to meet us in london, just minutes away. How late were you . How late was i . All late. At least an hour. Laughter. And then, the way that debs was so late. Oh, my god she had to meet us there. She how she got| through security. There were so many things. Going on with Terrorist Attacks but debs managed to get through everything, high security, without a pass, without id, without us meeting her, i just with a big, floppy hat and, like, im here im here it was at the start of the marathon. Yeah. So at the start of the marathon, theres lots of different start lines. And shes going across car parks, through fences. Shes i can see you i can see the tent and shes like and were like, debs, do you need someone to come and get you . No, ill be fine and then, she was she was all fine. She was. And then, she sat on a table that she thought was a chair that then collapsed, in front of andy murray. Laughter. 0h, weve had a great time. As someone who does many podcasts like, youre on the bbc, youve done this for years like, whats it been like watching this pod develop and grow . Because i know when we started it, we just didnt have a plan. We just wanted to do well. But obviously, we came in as little fledgling ducklings. It i mean, me and you, wed id done a call with you guys and it was you just got in the studio and it was meant to be a pilot and you got up off the train and you were and it was like, it was weird. It was like we knew you, as soon as you came in. And debs was going mad about something and you were going mad about debs because of something. Probably you were both late for the train, i cant remember. Sounds like debs. And this is the gods honest truth, and ive done a lot of pods and theres a couple of them have been really, really successful a few of them, actually not sorry, but laughter. Al right all right but ive sat ive only ever sat in a studio and known that a podcast was going to be brilliant. I turned to you and ijust we were four minutes in, i remember looking at the clock, i was like, were four minutes in, al. This is going to be amazing. The rest is history. That was it. Well, theres only one way that we could really wrap this up, and ill be honest she didnt always get the outro right. Laughter. But there were a couple of occasions that she did, so were gonna give the last word to our deb. Thank you guys for listening. Remember, you can contact us on all forms of social media. By using the hashtag youmebigc. If you could write a review, leave a rating and spread l the word about this podcast, wed really appreciate it. Thank you to everybody who has done so far. I goodbye bye ijust nailed that in one sorry, that was really loud. I never do that ever cheering and applause. Thanks for downloading the you, me and the big c podcast. Dont forget to click subscribe. Or get more great podcasts from five live at bbc. Co. Uk podcasts. Five live at bbc. Co. Uk podcasts. Hello there. A tale of two halves with the weather for this weekend. Theres a lot of cloud around today, and thats because weve got a Weather Front slipping southwards, its mild air as well. Its mostly cloudy. But tomorrow behind our Weather Front, it looks as if well see a good deal more sunshine. But we do change from this mild air ahead of that Weather Front to this colder air coming in behind under a ridge of High Pressure. But again, i do think itll feel decent enough in the sunshine. This is the Weather Front thats slipping southwards through today. The rain starting to peter out. Brighter skies and a few wintry showers following on behind. A little bit of sunshine ahead of it, but more limited. And overnight, the cloud will allow southern areas to just about escape a frost. But under that High Pressure further north, temperatures will fall away under the starry skies, and were looking at a fairly widespread rural frost at the very least. So we start off on a rather chilly note first thing sunday, quite a keen wind coming through the north sea as well for eastern areas, still that brisk ish wind towards the north and west. But for mostjust a day of dry and bright weather with hazy spells of sunshine for the most part. And temperatures will obviously not be as high as today because theyre starting at a lower level, about eight, possibly ten degrees celsius in east anglia. But some pleasant feeling weather, light winds, if youre out and about. During the evening and overnight, we do pick up a little bit more cloud ahead of the next Weather System in the north and the west. So it wont be quite as cold for the far north west of scotland, northern isles, the west of northern ireland. But elsewhere, another cold night and this time it will be frosty further south as well, possibly one or two mist and fog patches, because that High Pressures sat with us just slipping away towards the south and allowing more of an atlantic influence, if you like, on monday across parts of scotland and bringing a bit more cloud, perhaps a few spots of rain and drizzle. But eastern scotland, east of northern ireland, much of england and wales, after the clearance of any morning fog in england and wales, will have plenty of sunshine, dry and bright as well. Light ish wind. So feeling pleasant enough in that sunshine. But the High Pressure stays with us pretty much for the rest of the week. But we will have some strong winds at times and those Weather Fronts brushing the far north. But as i say, with the High Pressure staying firm in the south, at least it looks like very little rain here. Some chilly nights with frost and fog, but by day, some good spells of sunshine. A little bit more unsettled, and windy in the north west this is bbc news. Welcome, if youre watching here in the uk or around the globe. Our top stories. China has made another attempt to calm the diplomatic dispute over the presence of a chinese spy balloon in american airspace. The presence of this balloon in us airspace is a clear violation of us sovereignty and international law. Documents obtained by bbc news show magistrates in england and wales were told to wave through a bulk of applications by Energy Companies to focibly install Prepayment Meteres in homes. Pope francis and other christian leaders continue their Peace Mission to south sudan. Theyve been addressing crowds at the mausoleum of the independence hero, john garang. The family of nicola bulley, who went missing in lancashire eight