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At 30, Iain Ward was told he had terminal brain cancer and around five years to live. Within 24 hours, he had a new life goal.
Brian sits down with Iain, known to nearly 17 million followers as the King of Chemo, for an honest and often very funny conversation about mortality, purpose and what it really takes to keep going when nothing seems to be working.
Iain only found his tumour by chance, through a scan for a paid medical trial he'd signed up to for a bit of easy money. What followed was an awake craniotomy, radiotherapy, and a prognosis that would floor most people. But Iain didn't have a spiritual awakening or an ego death. Instead, he treated the diagnosis like a deadline for an assignment: not that much time, but enough time. He looked up the most money ever raised by running a marathon, and set out to break a charity world record without asking anyone to donate, by growing his social media and giving the advertising money to cancer research.
Brian and Iain explore why some people meet devastating news with logic rather than collapse, the "we'll see" philosophy of life's ups and downs, and why Iain believes being playful is not the same as being immature. Iain opens up about the low point after the TikTok Awards, when a huge physical challenge, a carefully planned speech and months of effort seemed to lead to nothing, and the simple thing that brought him back: working out in his back garden.
They also talk about drive and rest, finding your calling when you've never felt like you had one, and why not creating something is a way of denying the world what you could have given it.
This is a conversation about living with a deadline, choosing your response, and finding meaning in the time you have.
Season 3 of Change Is Possible is proudly supported by Turas Nua, helping people build skills and take the next steps towards employment, because with the right support, change really is possible. Learn more at Turas Nua
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Chapters:
0:00 The moment life split into before and after
3:27 What it's like to be awake for your own brain surgery
7:02 Living with a five year prognosis, and the lucky scan that found it
17:31 Why there was no ego death, only a plan
24:37 Treating a diagnosis like a deadline
28:25 The other self and the courage to be playful again
41:18 Turning social media into a charity world record attempt
47:41 Learning to say "we'll see" to life's ups and downs
50:06 When all the effort leads to nothing
57:57 The simple practice that pulled him back up
1:09:09 Finding your calling when you've never felt you had one
1:14:49 An open invitation to companies who want to help
