Robin Daly: Hello. Welcome to the Yes to Life show on UK Health Radio. I am Robin Daly, presenter for the show and founder of Yes to Life, the UK’s integrative cancer care charity. The focus of Yes to Life show is to make good information about integrative medicine available to people in the UK with a diagnosis cancer as a charity. This is something we do in a wide variety of ways. Through social media, the book Cancer Revolution, workshops, seminars, and other events. An upcoming Yes to Life event is subject to today show. This is something completely new and incredibly exciting. It is called Your Life and Cancer 2020. My guests today are Versha Carter and Sophie Potten of Progressive Communications, who we have been working with to put the event together. I am talking to Sophia and Versha over the internet.
Welcome back to the show.

Versha and Sophie : Hi!

Robin Daly: It is not that long since you were last on the Yes to Life show sharing facts but in these COVID-struck times, things can change pretty quickly and I have invited you on to share some very exciting news. But first I thought maybe you would like to pick up on where we left off at the end of the line last interview, which was about the European Congress for integrated medicine, which is due to be held in London for the first time. What is the latest on this?

Versha and Sophie : I cannot remember when was the interviews, I think it was February, but we were full steam ahead at the time and obviously Covid hit in between and so we have currently postponed the event until February of next year, which left us a bit of time on our hands in between.

Robin Daly: So this is what has actually created an opportunity for what we are going to talk about now. The event is going ahead next February, and it is going to be a full in-person event. We all hope that Covid is going to be a distant memory by then.

Versha and Sophie : Yes, we have got exhibitors signing up. We have had people register, so there is a sense of optimism. We very much hope that will happen.

Robin Daly: The subject of today’s interview, Your Life and Cancer 2020; would you like to tell our listeners what it is, when it is.

Versha and Sophie : Your Life and cancer 2020 is an event that is taking place over two weekends in September and October. It is an event that we have been speaking to Yes to Life about for some time with the vision being that it was going to be an in-person event where we would have conference sessions. To gear towards people who have a cancer diagnosis or their friends and families who want to learn more about integrative medicine and their lifestyle and complimentary things that they can do to combine with their conventional treatment.

Then with COVID, we just thought this was actually quite a good opportunity to do it online. So that is what we have been working on for the last few months. And we are just about getting ready to launch the events. It is going to take place in September and October of this year. So we are very excited about it.

Robin Daly: You are not the only ones. Do you want to say a little about how you got from being very established event promoters, but in an entirely different field, to building this event?

Versha and Sophie : Sure I have been organising events for most of my professional career. Sophie is a marketing expert and has been working in an event Institute for the last 10 years. We have been working together on events in completely different subjects, somewhat interesting, working with marine science and ocean science, very exciting field, but actually very separate from our own lives. On our weekends and in our personal time, we would be reading lots of natural health books, and that was where our personal interests lied. We just felt that actually it would be much more exciting to be working on events, that are really aligned with our personal values. I guess also we have both got parents who over the course of the last year or two, both had their own cancer diagnosis. My mother in particular has a number of different illnesses and the doctor would recommend one medical intervention that would maybe impact another illness that she might have. We both felt like it would just be wonderful if you could go to the doctor’s office and you could have somebody that would approach you as a whole person, and maybe that is a little bit ambitious in the short term, if you could go to a doctor’s and talk to a doctor about some of the things you might need to do for yourself, that would also help the conventional treatment that you’re having. So that is why we launched the European Congress Integrative Medicine in London and our goal is to continue working on events in this subject matter.

Robin Daly: What made you think you might want to produce an event for the public as well? The ECIM and it is very much a professional event is it not?

Versha and Sophie : Actually that was our starting place. You reminded me of our previous conversation. It seems like we have had so much happened in the last year, but actually our real starting place for Sophie and I was – we were thinking, would it not be great if we could go to the events where we could learn a range of different natural approaches to deal with issues, such as, skin conditions, stomach issues, various issues like that, and we could not find an event. That was what we had in mind and we had a real sense that we wanted to do something working with conventional medicine. I don’t really know how we got that sense, but maybe it was from people like Dr. Rankin. We both had an understanding that there were a lot of doctors moving more into this field. We felt that we wanted to do something that was very additive space and we are not doctors ourselves, we do not have that knowledge ourselves and so we felt that if we would organise an event for all doctors, which is what the European Congress integrated medicine is, for doctors and healthcare practitioners to talk about the science and the evidence behind integrative medicine. We felt that we would learn and then we would be able to deliver an event that was based on evidence for the public. At the time we thought we would probably do all subject matters, but maybe we felt that cancer was a subject that was something that we felt a bit unnerved. We were nervous about doing an event for people with cancer because of the sensitivity of the subject.

So actually we thought, our event for the public would be everything, but except cancer. And here we are now watching an event purely for people with a cancer diagnosis. So we’ve come full circle. What we see because of Yes to Life and that partnership, we like to team up with people that are experts. That is what Yes to Life do all the time said that is a good partnership.

Robin Daly: Well you are right, it is a sensitive area, but the need is massive of course, and growing every day. It is fantastic that you have actually taken that decision, we could not be happier. This is something we have been working on together for some time, as you mentioned. I have to say it is quite the most ambitious event that Yes to Life has ever put on with a breathtaking scope, stellar line-up of experts. I wonder if you could tell us about the focus of these two different weekends, who they are aimed at and generally what the content of each will be.

Versha and Sophie : Okay so the event is designed for everybody wherever they are in their journey. There is so much information available in this growing theme of integrative medicine. We just do not want people to feel overwhelmed with all the information that is available to them. As a result of that, we decided to set up two separate weekends, the first weekend taking place from the 26th to the 28th of September and that is very much for people that are new to integrative medicine, provides an insight into combining lifestyle and complementary medicine alongside conventional predictors. The second weekend taking place from the 10th to the 12th of October is for people that are a little bit more aware of that area of integrative medicine and it will be more of a deep dive into options that are available to people within the UK. We’re very much trying to appeal to wherever anyone is within that journey, but very much bigger thing on how integrative medicine can help people and it has helped others with their cancer diagnosis.

It is really overwhelming accessing all the information on the internet. It is difficult to know where to turn. This event is a shortcut in any search, but it also provides evidence informed information from trustworthy source to enable people to feel confident at the information they’re getting.

Robin Daly: So this is entirely online and a lot of content online. Can you tell us about accessing the material, what people need and how it has been timetabled so as to make the whole event a pleasure to be a part of?

Versha and Sophie : Yes the whole event is live. We have speakers from around the world, people can access information from the comfort of their own home and all session’s are live, which enables people to interact and be part of that if they want to. Or Equally, if they want to be anonymous and absorb the information from the privacy of their own home, then they are welcome to do that too. The software we are using to stream the presentations is extremely user friendly and does not require the user to download any software tool. They simply register to attend on the website. Closer to the time, they’ll be sent an email with a link to the platform, and they log in with their email address. As I said, they can be anonymous if they would like to do so, or they are welcome to put their name and even a photo if they would like to, so that they can interact with others. Once they are in the session, there is a couple of really nice features to the platform. There is a chat area where they can chat with us or with others. There is also a question and answer area where they can ask any questions and and other people can see those questions and vote for them. The speaker can see those questions and decide which one is voted the highest demand and answer those questions accordingly.

So it is a really nice way for people to access the information from their home, but be as interactive as they wish to do so. And we have experienced this technology ourselves by attending other events in our research really early on before we decided to go full speed ahead. We wanted to make sure that there was a technology out there that was suitable for our needs. There are some really sophisticated technologies out there, and some overly sophisticated. This just really simple technology. What was really exciting when we attended the Hay festival; there were 30,000 people from around the world people were signing in from San Diego and Mexico, Devon, and all over the world.

It felt really interactive. So I really do feel like, as Sophie mentioned it is a real opportunity to remain an anonymous, which I think is probably really important because not everybody wants to share the other one that they have a cancer diagnosis.

Robin Daly: That is a great feature and also voting on questions is also a brilliant feature. Of course loads of questions will be pouring in to trying to make sense of what is a good question to put through to the speakers is a tough call. But if all the attendees get a chance to say yes good question, then you can very quickly see which questions are really high in demand and you really get the biggest bang for your buck like in terms of answering a lot of people’s needs at once.

Versha and Sophie : It’s a really nice feature and it was really interesting to see. I’m actually working at the Hay festival. It was interesting that there was so many thousands of people attending and we had no idea how many registered for this event. And you have got everyone voting on questions, the list was telling you all the time, but it really did give you a sense of what the important questions are.

I know from just attending many other integrative cancer presentations with some of the sort of world’s leading experts that there are a lot of questions that people are asking. I actually do not think you can really get that opportunity in a normal conference in quite the same way. So I am hoping people will be pleased with this

Robin Daly: What about the timetabling then? You can only spend so long sitting in front of a screen without moving.
Versha and Sophie That was one of the points. We have got so much information that we want to get across, but we also are really aware that we don’t want to overwhelm people and that comment just came out. We did a lot of research in putting the program together with one of your Wigwam support groups.

The point of view as to what they were looking for at various stages in their own cancer journey and what would have been helpful so they can have moves with the concept. And, but also just that whole sense of how long can you sit at a computer and we have all experienced that during COVID where were, we can get overwhelmed with all of these presentations that were so. Every presentation has a minimum of half an hour gap between each one. Whereas in a conference you might go from one, you might be sitting down for an hour and a half, and then going from one session to the next, every there is a gap half an hour between each and then there is longer gaps at lunch. And we have also got some evening sessions as well, but then we have created a longer gap right before that evening session. And we do not necessarily think people will choose to attend every session live. There are some people may wish to, but if they want to, they have the option where they can buy the options and have the recordings as well, so that they can go back and look at those offers if they were not.

Robin Daly: The other thing I wanted to ask you about is that I believe there are opportunities for people to take time out within the conference as well.

Versha and Sophie : Yes there are seven in addition to having half an hour breaks in between each session and also having normal lunches. We also introduced an awareness area. And the, when I was airing provides a mix of activities such as breath, work, meditation, yoga, and other activities all prerecorded people can access on demand.
You can access that information by going into the wellness area and all those activities are there for people to embrace and to do what, and when suits them back.

Robin Daly: Excellent. So, I want to talk now a little bit about the format of the sessions. Is it going to be a bit different from your standard PowerPoint lecture?

Versha and Sophie : Definitely. We’ve all attended so many workshops over the last few months. All of those have involved more conversation style. I just feel so much more engaging than looking at a screen, or the PowerPoint slides. So instead of having a presenter with your PowerPoint slides, for this event we decided to have a conversation style presentation, where we have got two presenters and more, engaging in conversation.

It is just much easier for the audience to listen to. And also slides on a small screen do not necessarily have the same impact. We have got in every case, a minimum of two speakers, one of the speakers will be asking the other speaker questions and also handling the questions from the audience, so that they can interject with questions from the audience that seem appropriate at the same time. There may be the odd one, two PowerPoint slides if a presenter really feels that it is important to get the message across, but everyone has bought into this. The other really useful element of this is that technology can go amess, we all know that and experienced it in the last few months. But the chances of both speakers’ technology going down at the same time would be very limited. Both of them are experts on the subject that they are talking on. If for any reason, one will be able to cover for the other speaker.

Robin Daly: This is definitely a case of a two for the price of one here, because what you say is right, they are both two top experts in every case having a discussion which is going to be very fruitful as a format; and then also, as you say, you get two points of view there and you are definitely not going to be left with no points of view if something is wrong.

Versha and Sophie : It’s really exciting and what has been really lovely is the presenters. They really bought into the concept and this is some of those speakers are really excited at the thought of having an opportunity to interview some of the other speakers, because we are bringing people from all over the world. They would not necessarily even have the opportunity to meet before. It is going to be nice and especially because we’re bringing US and UK participants together. That will be really interesting because we do things differently in each country and bouncing that off each other is going to be interesting.

Robin Daly: I just want to come back round to the opportunities for participation in each session, how much time is being devoted to the discussion and how much time to the Q&A?

Versha and Sophie : It is somewhat dependent on the speakers. But we have definitely been guiding them. There is a reason why Ted Talks are 18 minutes long, because you can get the information across on limited amount of time. We really want the audience to have an opportunity to ask the experts questions, which is something they would not normally be able to. We have said to the speakers, if they speak 20-25 minutes, and then, 15-20 minutes for Q&A then that would be suitable.

Robin Daly: Right so plenty of opportunity. Before going on to look at the content of each weekend in a bit more detail, I would like to come back to what you just mentioned there, the international flavour of the event. Alongside the core of the most eminent UK players in the field of integrative medicine, there are quite a lot of contributions coming from other countries and notably the US. Would you say a little about what has guided the choice of experts for the events?

Versha and Sophie : Well, we have been really aware from the beginning that we would want to have international speakers and having personally attended the Society for Integrative Oncologies Scientific Conference last October, where I met a lot of these experts or learnt of them international, didn’t have an opportunity myself to speak to them directly.

You will notice that sometimes their sessions don’t always feel like they flow exactly in the right order. If we have got a US speaker and then they are on the West coast of the US, we obviously had to schedule the programme around their timing. But we got some amazing US speakers that have agreed to come at 6:30am in the morning.

Ultimately the reason why we have got such an international audience is, the US and Canada have a fairly advanced approach to integrative oncology and they have got some really leading experts. This has just given us a great opportunity to share that information with the people in the United Kingdom that have cancer diagnosis.

What would also be great is if we managed to get some doctors and oncologists from the UK to attend and listen to some of their counterparts in America to hear about how they’re incorporating integrative medicine. Hopefully that will be one of the outcomes.

Robin Daly: Yes hopefully, we would love that of course. The format also is that you don’t actually need to go anywhere to join, makes it more likely that they may.

Versha and Sophie : Yes. When it came to writing them, it feels like we are pinching ourselves sometimes, because well we might as well ask them, and they could only say no. But so many of them said yes. In most cases, we’re only asking them to give us a 45-minute commitment and maybe a half an hour in addition to prepare, because these experts are talking about a subject that they know so well, and they don’t have to prepare. So we have just been really delighted about the support that we have got. Even the experts themselves, are really loving to see this programme; they’re learning about Yes to Life, some of the Americans don’t know about your organisation. They can see that this has got a worthwhile cause behind it. So we have been really excited.

Robin Daly: Excellent. So looking at the two weekends in a bit more detail; starting with the first one, the Introduction to Integrated Medicine. First question, does it do what it says on the tin? If I turn up knowing nothing at all about integrated medicine, will the material of this weekend be straightforward enough for me to assimilate?

Versha and Sophie : Definitely. This weekend has been very much like your Cancer Revolution book that Yes To Life has published, and it does take you through a real introduction to the subject if you have never thought about any sort of complimentary or lifestyle changes to your conventional treatments. It is a great introduction.

We have got a range of different speakers, lots of doctors, lots of functional medicine doctors, nutritionists. They are all talking about the basics. I feel that there are a lot of people who don’t have cancer, that could benefit from attending this session, because we should all be doing these things.

We should also be all be thinking about our stress levels and our gut health and our diet and exercise. So it is great introduction. Then there are speakers who know exactly the audience that they are speaking to, they’re experienced in speaking with people who are unfamiliar with integrative medicine. I think it is going to be really accessible.

Robin Daly: That is really great to hear. This is going to have to be brief considering the amount of stuff we could talk about. But can you lead us through the content and introduce us to the experts involved in the Saturday and Sunday sessions?

Versha and Sophie : Where to start! We’ve got Professor Robert Thomas who is going to be speaking about the importance of lifestyle changes during and after your cancer treatments. We’ve got Patricia Pete from the Cancer Options and Dr Catherine Zollman, who will give a bit of a deeper dive to explain what an integrative approach to cancer looks like.

We’ve got two great nutritionists who will focus on diet and the science behind it, why it is important to eat well, as well as some of the things that you can do to improve your diet. We’ve got one of the UK’s leading microbiome scientists Dr Carol Granger who is speaking with Miguel Toribio Mattias from the BANT organisation. That’s only up to 2:30 on a Thursday, that gives you a taste of how much content that we have. But we also have some really inspiring talks. We have got a naturopath from United States, Dr. Alschuler, who is one of the most highly respected naturopathic oncologists in the States, really respected both by the conventional and the complimentary worlds. She has had cancer herself, she supports people with cancer. She is going to give us a presentation which I am really excited about. On the second day, we have got Sophie Sabbage, anybody who has read the Cancer Whisperer book will know already just how amazing she is and how powerful she is. She is going to open up the second day. We have got Lizzie Davis speaking about the importance of exercise. Dr. Lauren McDonald is a GP, she’s had stage four cancer herself, and she is going to talk about the importance of stress and isolation when you are addressing cancer diagnosis. Then we have two functional medicine doctors that are talking about the laboratory tests that you can do and which ones if you are on a limited budget, which ones you should focus on, detoxifying and the toxins in your environment.

There is a great medical doctor and GP, Dr. Jenny Goodman. She has just published a book called Staying Alive in Toxic Times and that book just sounds amazing. I think I am going to have loads of questions for her. I am really excited about the fact that we have managed to secure Professor Donald Abrams, who is an oncologist in the States. He was named a “Top Cancer Doctor” in Newsweek’s 2015 Special Health Issue on Curing Cancer. He currently works in a conventional hospital and an integrated medicine hospital. Professor Robert Thomas, our leading lifestyle oncologist from the UK is going to interview him. I think that is just going to be an amazing session.

Robin Daly: I am looking forward to that, what a great thing to have him chatting with our own Professor Thomas.
Versha and Sophie : I think it is going to be really exciting. Well, I mean, that is the one that I just feel like every oncologist in the UK should be attending to listen to.

Robin Daly: There is an extra session on Monday evening. What is that all about?

Versha and Sophie : The Monday sessions really came about as a result of talking to people who have had a cancer diagnosis. Dr. Catherine Zollman from Penny Braun has been really helpful in helping us to develop this programme. She has very much reminded us that when somebody does have a cancer diagnosis, they might already be very overwhelmed with the information that they have received to do with our conventional treatment that they are having. Before you get cancer, you do not maybe know that there are different types of breast cancer for instance, and you do understand the differences between the different types of chemotherapy.

They are already overwhelmed before they arrive here and now we are going to overload them again and provide them with more information. Dr. Zollman was really conscious of as she regularly sees patients that arrive with an overwhelmed feeling. So if we give them up until Sunday, absorbing all of this information, learn all the things that they can do with regards to supplements that they can take, laboratory tests that they can get that might help them, the foods that they should change and thinking about how they are going to change the diet for themselves and their families… We don’t want to create any more stress for anyone. We do not want to leave somebody at the end of Sunday night with all this information and for them to go away and digest it and have nowhere to go. So on the Monday night after both weekends you have got the whole session with people that have either had a cancer diagnosis and have embraced integrative medicine and how they have done that along with some experts who can help the participants in the direction of where they can get extra support. There are lots of organisations like that; Yes to Life, Penny Broad, a number of different organisations that can continue the journey. Where we see ourself as starting that journey for some people but making sure that they know when to go for the next step and that is what the Monday session is all about.

Robin Daly: Brilliant, it is very important, I completely agree. Thanks. So the second weekend called Expanding Your Knowledge, who do you expect to attend this section?

Versha and Sophie : People that have already started embracing lifestyle changes, changing their diet, sorting out their microbiomes, handling, managing their stress levels, physical exercise, and so on. Those people that have been reading about other approaches that they can possibly integrate but they don’t necessarily understand the science behind them, or they just want more information. So for instance Mistletoe Therapy seems to be a topic that is regularly discussed and people have lots of questions about that. We are getting leading European doctors to speak, to be available, to answer questions that people might have. This weekend is still going to be presented in a way that will be accessible for people, but if people want to understand how do cannabinoids impact cancer care; there’s a professor and a doctor speaking together explaining benefits of introducing that into your conventional cancer plan. I think the speakers that we have got here or we have got some amazing speakers.

Robin Daly: Tell us a few of the big names.

Versha and Sophie : I never know where to start when I mention the big names. Because I feel like every speaker is, but we’ve got Professor Seyfried, who has written the Cancer as a Metabolic Disease book, hugely respected scientist. It was a groundbreaking book and that is going to be very interesting. He is speaking with Dr. Nasha Winters who is a naturopath herself and global healthcare authority in integrative cancer research and internationally sought after speaker. She is going to be speaking with Thomas Seyfried, but also presenting later on the importance of the crucial role of hormones. We have also got Dr. Patrick Hanaway, who is really excited because he is the senior advisor to the CEO of the Institute of Functional Medicine. A lot of the functional medicine doctors that we have here in the UK are members and have got their accreditation through the Institute of Functional Medicine. Patrick Hanaway was also the founding medical director of the Cleveland Clinic for Functional Medicine developed with Dr Mark Hyman. He is probably be global authority on integrative medicine and functional medicine in the world, I would say. But Patrick has had his own cancer diagnosis recently. He just sounds like such an amazing person. I just think it is going to be not only very informative, but also very inspirational presentation. And that’s just day 1!

We’ve got Jane McLelland, Valter Longo, the longevity expert, we’ve got Keith Block, who is the medical and scientific director of the Block Center for integrative cancer treatment center in the States. That is going to be able to really give people an idea of what a truly integrative approach to cancer can look like, where you can go to one center, getting chemotherapy, get radiotherapy treatment, and all your traditional conventional treatments, and combine that with all the other lifestyle and complimentary Information that we taught everyone about over two weekends. So I think that would be a really great way to sort of see it in action. We are excited to invite him.

Robin Daly: I am extremely excited about that. I have got to say he is one of my all-time heroes, Keith Block, incredible man who is a real trailblazer. I call him one of the foundational characters behind integrative cancer treatment. He has been doing it so long and he has been doing it so well and so seriously.

Versha and Sophie: We feel very privileged and honoured that he is accepted so it is great.

Robin Daly: The line-up is completely stellar. As I said at the outset, Your Life and Cancer 2020 is quite the most ambitious event that Yes To Life has ever hosted. Now a very important point for many of us, having heard all this fantastic content you have just talked about is, can I afford to attend? Yes To Life have always made a point of making events as accessible as possible. So what does Your Life and Cancer cost and what are the options for attending?

Versha and Sophie : Registration is open now. People can go online and register. As you said, we have been very keen to make sure that the cost is as low as possible so as many people to attend as they can. We believe this information is so invaluable that we want to make sure that everyone can access it. The price is quite affordable at £25 pounds per weekend. That’s the price if people register before the 18th of September and that enables them to access all of the live content that is available on either weekends. There are some additional options as well. If people want to purchase the recordings so that they can digest the information at a later date, then there is a little bit of extra cost to enable them to do that. We have built in discounts so if they want to attend both weekends. The prices are really nominal to enable it to be accessible to all, and people can then dip in the sessions as they would like to and go back to them at a later date.

Robin Daly: Fantastic so a very accessible, £25 for what you just described is an extraordinary value for money. I would like to also mention, of course there will be some supportive places from Yes To Life as well for people who are really hard up. Because we know Yes to Life wants people to get this information, that’s is what we are here for. So I hope we are going to have massive attendance and people are really going to get some value out of it. So, where can listeners find out more and book?

Versha and Sophie: If they head to the website, then all of the information is available there and they can jump on the registration page. And then a very short registration form, really quick and easy. The website address is www.Yourlifeandcancer.Com.

Robin Daly: Excellent and can you give me a reminder about the dates for two weekends?

Versha and Sophie : Absolutely. The first Introduction to Integrative Medicine is on the 26th to the 28th of September. And the second weekend for people that are a bit more embracing integrative medicine is on 10th toe the 12th of October.
Robin Daly: Excellent. And those early bird rates are available for how long?

Versha and Sophie : The early bird rates are available the first weekend up to the 18th of September and the second weekend is available up to the 2nd of October, so basically a week in advance of the start date, which gives us some time to also just get a sense of how many people are coming. We do need to send everyone their log in registrations, and ideally you want to be doing that the day before. So hopefully people will register in advance.

Robin Daly: Well we are going to have to leave it there. It has been absolute pleasure developing this event with you and the professionalism and the experience you are bringing to every aspect of the arrangements is everything Yes to Life aim for. I am very excited to see how many people we could reach with this and how many places we are going to get to. Easy worldwide access of course is one of the silver linings of online events. So thanks so much for joining me today to tell listeners all about Your Life and Cancer 2020.

Versha and Sophie : Thank you and thanks for working with us at Your Life and Cancer. It’s just such a wonderful partnership. Thank you.

Robin Daly: Head to yourlifeandcancer.com to see for yourself the stunning range of speakers and subject matter that is on offer for a mere £25 per weekend. The registration button is big and pink and it is in the top right hand corner.
Thanks very much for listening today. I will be back again next week with another guest, another topic under the umbrella of integrative medicine, the cancer. So do please join me again for another Yes to Life show here on the UK Health Radio.

Goodbye.