Talking about cancer on the radio.

I have no hard and fast methods for determining what appears in this space. If it interests me in any way, it's eligible, and the blog continues to function as a personal diary. Consequently, it comes down to this: the older you get, the more you think about topics like this.  

The day two men talking about cancer on the radio made the nation stop, by Miranda Sawyer (The Guardian)

Steve Hewlett tells of the impact of his cancer diaries on Radio 4

 ... For several months, Hewlett has been popping up on PM, giving listeners an account of his cancer (it was initially found at the bottom of his oesophagus). He has also been writing about his experience for the Observer, in his My Cancer Diary series. A BBC man of many years’ standing – he was Panorama’s editor during the 1990s, and has presented The Media Show on Radio 4 since 2008 – Hewlett has approached his diagnosis and subsequent treatment with a journalist’s thoroughness. He has researched on Google, talked to friends who have been through cancer, investigated where best to get treatment, listened to and challenged his doctors. Whatever he has encountered, he has almost always been prepared. In an early broadcast, when he questioned a registrar over his prescription, he was allowed an extra drug, one that gave him 10% more chance of survival. “I think I just prescribed myself,” said Hewlett to Mair. To me, he says: “The more engaged with your treatment you are, the better treatment you get.”