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Dougie speaks with Dr Lisa Richardson and Dr Liz O' Riordan on the 75th anniversary of the World Health Organisation.
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Bay radio International our business is
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helping your business grow I'd spay
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radio on a Friday afternoon it's World
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Health day and as we celebrate the World
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Health organization's birthday I suppose
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75 years yeah I'm joined Now by Dr Lisa
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Richardson and Dr Liz o'riordan and Dr
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Richardson if I can start with you your
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director at cdc's division of cancer
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prevention and control uh can you tell
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us about uh CDC and your role please yes
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so I'm at the Centers for Disease
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Control in Atlanta Georgia and so what
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we have here as part of our sort of um
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aspirational goal is all people free of
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cancer which really aligns with health
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for all in the World Health Organization
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you know World Health day and so what we
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do here is look at the Spectrum of
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cancer control from prevention eating
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right not drinking too much much those
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types of things getting diagnosed if
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you're screened and then what if you
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survive cancer which in this country
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most people do what do you do after that
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and how do you live your life more fully
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after you've had cancer I've heard of a
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book called anti-cancer a new way of
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life no I have not it is amazing it's
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been my Bible I've been on on the
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journey it was my Bible it was my go-to
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because it not only talks about cancer
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and the causes it it goes a bit deeper
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it talks about uh pre-war farming
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methods and how things have changed
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haven't they just and how things creep
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past the um FDA and things like that but
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this that's that's something we could
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get into but we'd be here for far too
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long so uh but you know what I mean yes
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um so uh on to Dr Riordan um tell us
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about your involvement so I'm a breast
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cancer surgeon who actually got breast
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cancer myself
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um I was 40 back in 2015 I never checked
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my breasts hands up because I thought it
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wouldn't happen to me and I noticed a
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lump one day and that was a stage three
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cancer and I had a year of treatment and
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realized just how hard it was to go
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through the drugs I gave my patients
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every day and how scary it was to be on
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the other side of the table with a list
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of questions I was too embarrassed to
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ask in 2018 it came back on my chest
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wall and the treatment for that meant I
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had to stop operating so I now spend my
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time talking and educating patients and
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doctors about what it's actually like to
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have cancer because you don't hear much
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When someone tells you the c word and
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you come away with the long list of
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questions and you've no idea what to do
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and through the empowered health program
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I'm helping patients realize they have
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an equal seat at the table so they can
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understand and ask questions and know
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what is happening to them whether
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they've got primary or secondary cancer
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it's always good to have somebody with
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you that will remember stuff because
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when you've got that coming at you you
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forget most of it there's certain
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certain little bits you oh I wish I'd
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ask that but you know if you've got
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somebody that can remember yeah exactly
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or a website to go to where you can ask
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those questions find out what you need
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to go the next time you come back
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because it takes time for all to sink in
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as I'm saying this is a subject close to
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my heart
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um as when I went through this early
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testing hadn't really reached our Shores
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here
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um and I I'm pretty certain what
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occurred could have been prevent it
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entirely I think
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so this year's theme for World Health
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day is health for all Dr Richardson can
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you elaborate on that for us please and
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and what is the empowered health program
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so empowered health I want to speak to
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the you know the point that
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um doctor already made earlier was that
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it really is a very scary time it's
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really hard for you to hear what's being
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said I'm a doctor that gives
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chemotherapy here in the U.S and so one
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of my one of my practices would be to
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talk with people and then have them back
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in a week or two to re-talk and ask
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questions and so what empowered health
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is about is that on that website we have
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information for the patient for the
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providers who's seeing the patients
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because you know we may be providers but
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as she said earlier we don't know it all
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either right and especially the
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psychological part of having cancer is
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really something that none of us are
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taught about when we train to be
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Physicians none of us and so that's
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really what empowered health is about
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and health for all as I said earlier is
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really about no matter what stage you
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are in your life no matter what stage
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you are and whatever you know health
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condition you're dealing with
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information really does empower people
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information that they can understand and
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that is the goal of our
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um program empowered health
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and there's uh there's website and they
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empoweredhealth.org yes is that right
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absolutely okay Dr o'riordan you've been
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through the Journey yourself so how did
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that uh affect you and what's your role
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in the empowered health program so I
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think having had cancer myself I
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realized how little I knew about what
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the patients go through because they
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don't tell me as a surgeon or oncologist
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they said they tell their family so
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using this to help doctors realize how
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they can help their patients especially
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when the treatment send how to get their
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life back the importance of exercise how
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to talk about sex and relationships all
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of that I also want to use it to help
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encourage patients in the general public
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to know what the signs of cancer are
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what to do if you're worried and to go
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for screening I never check my breasts I
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was too young to have a mammogram that
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was the only thing I could do and I
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didn't do it and it's really important
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even if you find something and you're
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really really scared you have to get it
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checked out early because that worry in
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your head can just be awful okay yes so
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what can we say to somebody that's going
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through
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the early stages right now what what can
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we what can we give them so I'll start
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and then Liz Can can take over I would
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say again you know go to those trusted
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places where you can learn about what
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you have
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um when you go in for your visits
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um I like to say there's no dumb
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questions right and if someone thinks
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your question is dumb you need to move
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on to find someone who doesn't right and
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that just to to learn as much as you can
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inform to inform yourself and the one
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thing I did forget to say about you know
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empowered health is that there's a
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section for caregivers those those
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people are critical to making sure that
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you get what you need you get to where
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you need to be I don't know what your
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cancer experience was Dougie but you
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know sometimes you just need somebody to
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take you places because you just can't
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do it for yourself right and so it's
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really
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mind being mindful of those who support
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us as we go through the health problems
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that we have and especially cancer it's
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such a complicated process with
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chemotherapy radiation surgery and we do
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need that help to get through it yeah I
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have to say the uh the caregiver whether
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it be a spouse or or friend or whatever
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they often get overlooked don't they yes
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we need to take our hat off to to their
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maid they do a great job and I mean I
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was helped uh well 10 years ago
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um and and I'm still being afraid you
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know you know what it's like
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um yeah so uh so Liz what about you I
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think for me it's encouraging cancer
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patients to stay as healthy as they can
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because we know if you exercise
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regularly if you eat well it improves
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the side effects of drugs it makes the
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treatment more effective it reduces the
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risk of it coming back and we are
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talking about health for all and if we
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can all adopt a much healthier lifestyle
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it will reduce the risk of cancer and
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help cancer patients stay alive for
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longer as I said earlier if there's
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somebody going through it or they've got
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an inkling there might be something not
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quite right what's the first step go to
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your GP make an appointment get it
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checked out you have no control over
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what this is it may be cancer which may
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be a terrifying thought with a long
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longer you wait if it is a cancer it
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could start to grow and spread so if you
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are worried you've had something for two
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or three weeks you can't explain see
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your GP tell someone get it checked out
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now I just want to add that we we need
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to to understand that there are things
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we can do eat healthy exercise
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um and and not to be hard too hard on
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yourself because we all are
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um you know if you can't do it every day
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um get up the next day it's a new day
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and start again and try again so just
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one of those things about keeping a
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positive attitude and trying it to work
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you know just keeping a positive
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attitude yeah excellent words I'm taking
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that in for me I'm having some of that
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thank you thank you very much uh Dr
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Richardson and Dr o'riordan thank you
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very very much for joining us and um
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happy Easter yeah thank you thanks
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Dougie radio
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