#158 - Using Terminal Brain Cancer Against Itself To Break A Charity World Record I The King Of Chemo 💙

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Welcome back to the run through podcast and a truly special episode today.
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It is Ben Shepard here, by the way, and today I am joined by Ian Wards, better known as the King of Chemo.
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At just 31, Ian was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
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But instead of letting that define him, he's flipped it on his head.
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He's now on a mission to break a charity world record by building a huge social media following and turning that into sponsorship money for good causes rather than asking the public to donate.
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From running and walking marathons while carrying 20 kilos of weight in some pretty wild costumes to the reality of hearing that diagnosis and how it completely changes your outlook on life.
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We get into mindset, pressure, relationships, social media, and what it really takes to keep going when things do feel overwhelming.
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There are some serious moments in this one, plenty of honest reflections, and a lot of humour along the way as well.
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Ian's perspective on life and the way he approaches it really makes this episode stand out.
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It's a genuinely powerful listen, and I just want to say a massive thank you to Ian and his team for making this happen.
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Ian has also joined us at Run Through and Raced recently, and he is going to be doing exactly that again a couple more times before the year's out.
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So keep an eye on his social media and ours as well to see where you could run with him.
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Ian Wards, aka the King of Chemo, is on the Run Through podcast.
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When I got terminal brain cancer, I kind of decided that I would use that cancer against itself to break a charity world record.
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It gave me a serious life focus and a purpose that I never had before.
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I have every right to be like falling apart and bawling my eyes out.
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You're under an immense amount of pressure right now.
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You absolutely deserve to uh tell everyone to go away.
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But do you want to be that guy who does that?
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The population of marathon is often no different than like the population on a public bus.
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It is inspirational to see that uh other people are giving it a go.
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So my real name is Ian Ward, but more people would know me by my social media username, which is the King of Chemo, hence the crown.
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And I myself have terminal brain cancer.
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You can't really see it too well, but there's a little bit of missing hair on this side.
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And uh when I got terminal brain cancer, I kind of decided that I would use that cancer against itself to break a charity world record and uh for running a marathon, hence why we're working together here now.
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And uh one of the big things that I wanted to do was to be completely unique and uh to raise those funds without asking uh Joe Public for donations, but to get people to simply follow my account, they all have the same username, so uh the King of Chemo.
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And then I use the advertising or sponsorship money to uh get those companies to donate instead of asking um the average person, and so it's it's like obviously that's not gonna work if I just have a thousand followers, so I need millions and millions and millions of followers for this to work.
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Um as a simple example, uh last Sunday, which was you know three days ago or whatever it was, uh that I we had a contract with Smith's Toy Store, and they had me playing the uh the latest Pokemon game, and they gave us£7,500, which we then sent directly to in this in this situation, the World Wildlife Fund, um, because Pokemon, animals, and then also I wanted to um wear a weight vest, and wearing the weight vest kind of looked like a teenage mutant ninja turtle.
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So I thought, uh, we'll we'll match, we'll bind these things.
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Yeah, we'll bind these things together.
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And um, yeah, so uh it's never gonna stop though.
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Like, even after like hopefully I break the world record before I die, then uh we're I'm just gonna move on to the the next world record, which is uh most money raised for a charity walk, which is way, way harder financially, but you know, on paper would seem to be easier physically, but I'll find a way to make it way harder physically to kind of match the finances uh challenge as well.
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And that's just my life goal.
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And I'm I know it sounds a bit insane, but uh it gave me a serious life focus and a purpose that I never had before, and you know like in a lot of ways, through my doctor, uh through how I found out that I got cancer, it's actually given said that I'm quite uh a lucky, unlucky person, and then so I've kind of adopted that a little bit more to think that you know getting cancer at such a young age, but then giving me such a sort of a uh a focus and a drive that I am the most the unluckiest lucky man in the world.
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And so here I am with yourself, and we're I'm gonna talk about running.
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Take me back to to that moment, Ian.
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Take me back to 31-year-old you when you do find out that when you when you are sitting with that doctor and he does say those words to you.
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Um I mean, like it was a shock, but um like quite quickly, I just kind of like almost did a bit of a uh head in the sand situation where it was like, now's not the time to lose your composure because you're in a con you're in a conversation with this doctor.
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So ask questions now because you might not be able to ask questions later, you know.
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You might not be able to call him up, he might be busy, he's a brain surgeon, you know, they don't just sit there twiddling their thumbs with you know, waiting for other people to to to chat to them.
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And it's the NHS as well, and it was during COVID, so you know, um I I was kind of like right, package these away for a while, and I just started asking questions of sort of like uh how do I need to prepare for the surgery?
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Is there anything I can do with this?
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Is there any ways to increase my uh likelihood of coming out in a better way?
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And then I kind of found uh as I was walking out after the situation, like I I just sort of enjoyed that, like, oh, that was nice that you were able to keep yourself together in that situation, and it was almost like a bit of a self-fulfilling, not prophecy, but I kept kind of thinking that I like that I didn't uh uh lose control, and then it just kind of made it made me keep thinking that, like, well, if you didn't lose control in that situation and you didn't fall apart, then that means that you can continue to do that.
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And I know that a lot of people might be listening to that and thinking, like, that's not what you're doing, you're just you're you're not dealing with your problems.
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That's you know a very typical sort of uh bad mental health thing that a lot of people men are known for doing, which is kind of like you know, don't deal with it, like leave it in back, like build the tension up.
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Um, but I do discuss and talk about my uh cancer situation on almost a daily basis.
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So uh I I don't think I'm burying my my issues more so that I've uh been very lucky in that I have learned how to um deal with them.
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Yeah, I don't I I wouldn't I wouldn't have said that or even related to that at all, the fact that um people may may listen and think you're bearing your issues because you are the one out there that is putting yourself front and centre pretty much every day, not only in person with people, but over social media as well.
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And I think what you're doing is, and we'll get on to this, it's incredibly abramable because you turn round and you've turned a situation that is absolutely brutal into something that you you know is almost like a positive for so many other people.
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Um and take me back to the start of that journey, that moment where you were like, you know what, I'm gonna put this on social media.
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I've got this idea, this is something I want to do.
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What what was that process like?
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How did you get towards that place to start with and then hit and post on that first video?
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Um, were you expecting reaction?
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Um, I don't know what reaction I was uh expecting.
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I was kind of expecting the reverse of what's happened now, where I have tons of followers and uh the sponsors are kind of quite hard to get, but I think that was an accurate thing to think of because um I've said this to people before, like I've nearly got 10 million followers on Instagram for as one example.
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If I had a million followers at the time that I uh started uh my campaign, which would have been five years ago, I think we'd be getting um way more sponsorships.
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But because COVID in particular, but generally just sort of uh life as it is, more people are um have joined social media as a form of uh business, I guess, whether it be habitual or whether it be something that's intentional uh to kind of expand their business.
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So it's become a bit more of a saturated market now.
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And so I thought that the the hardest part would be the reaction of getting people to actually trust me enough to be like, no, I actually have cancer and I'm actually gonna give this money to charity.
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I really do not care.
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I thought most people would be like, you don't look sick, get out of here, like you know, and even if it's like, yeah, whatever, you've proven you've got cancer, you're not gonna like give that money away, you're gonna hold on to it.
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Um, but that was actually the easy part.
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Like loads of people were just like, yeah, sure, let's let's do it.
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You can do it, man.
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And then like um after I got my first biggest contract, uh big contract, which would have been with um, oh, I can't remember off the top of my head now, but uh I think it was my protein, but uh, I thought, all right, now's the time that like I can kind of show this is how much they're paying me, this is how much I'm putting into cancer or uh charity every uh every month.
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And uh I thought that would have been like the moment where everyone would be like, oh, it's completely, it's without doubt now.
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We've seen it.
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Like, you know, he's proven um he's proven the cancer situation, uh, he's proven the um the sponsorship situation.
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I thought it would just explode and it just didn't.
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It just kind of like, you know, it kept going up and we kept getting more sponsors and we kept getting more followers and all.
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But I thought there'd be like a kind of a once there was a big sort of moment of proof that it all is working, that like it'd shoot up, and that, you know, is has not happened, but it still is progressing up and up and up and up.
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So I haven't lost my drive or my faith or my uh motivation in any way.
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And there is this like sort of the pinnacle of the of the world records, and that's kind of the North Star here, and we're we're always looking towards that.
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And you know, that is that is a very that is a very I've said that word admirable already, but that's a that's a thing to be looking at not only as like that is a world record, but it's what that represents, isn't it?
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It's the fact that that is gonna help so many people.
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Have you always had that about yourself?
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The like helping other people type part of your personality.
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Did you have that before before the cancer?
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Yeah, a little bit.
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For me, it's more kind of like um it's like problem solving more than anything else.
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And I don't think that it comes from a place of me being a particularly like good um person, but it's uh like if you are in a supermarket and a lady who's not particularly tall uh says like hey, can you pass that um you know the oats down from the the high shelf?
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I don't think it makes anybody like you know, oh I'm such a great person to do this.
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No, it's just like no, yeah, you're just like, yeah, you can do it.
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It's very easy for you to do that, where it's like quite hard for this like old lady to do it.
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And so with that, um, that's kind of the attitude that I've had for uh a lot of stuff.
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And the same thing when I started doing this charity, uh, this big charity campaign thing.
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It wasn't so much where it's like I must help others, I must prevent others from suffering from what I've gone through.
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I don't like I never want to try and make out like I'm one of those people because I'm not.
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I'm not one of those really good fucking down to the soul sort of human beings.
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I just saw it as like, you know, all right, you were in a very unique situation and you can do something really cool with the situation you're in because brain cancer doesn't shut down your your body.
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Uh it kind of it's uh it's not so much degenerative as many, many, many of the other forms of cancer.
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But uh like I I studied nursing and I studied like paramedic science and I still wasn't aware of these sort of things, so I kind of knew like, oh, most people probably won't be uh aware of the sort of the different strains of cancer and how they uh uh change the body through their like uh process towards death.
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And so when I found out about what brain cancer does, it was like I can kind of tell a story here where people will assume that because I have cancer, that like it's this massive burden on my uh my my body, and it's gonna fade away when it's not really, it kind of like gets to a point, then it gets into your spine, and then it cut shuts things down quite quickly.
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And so I can use that and then use me doing something physical.
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And a marathon was the first thing that I thought of because I'd previously done one, and they're basically just the like gigantic charity uh kind of fundraising events the world over.
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So I kind of thought like if I'm a cancer patient and I'm doing a marathon uh for charity, all those things like take very small amounts of um thinking for someone to be like cancer, hard on the body, marathon, hard on the body, charity to cancer and to marathon.
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It's like they they all link in very nicely to create this simple story of um uh it's a thing called like the hero's arc or something like that.
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And it's basically just uh normal.
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It's like that you see it all the time in Greek mythology.
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Rocky is basically the exact same sort of thing where it's like normal person, huge uh issue that like other people can relate to, getting over the issue, and then the result is uh is a good thing.
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So I just kind of saw like that's a that's a classical story that can be told really well, and I'm I'm in a unique situation where I'd be able to do that quite well.
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You do tell a story very, very well.
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Like you're very, very good at that.
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Where where does that come from?
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I'm just that I think that's just a gift from uh from the parents.
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Yeah, it's it's that it's that uh it's the Irishness in you, I think, mate.
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The Cel the Celtic storytelling is uh is very, very, very paramount, which I yeah, I just think you're so so good at it.
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And you're so good as well at like, and it's this is partially to do with your story, but it's who you are and it's how you put everything across, relaying message and kind of building narrative.
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And I think that's part of the reason why, and I know you said that maybe it hasn't spiked how you thought it might when it comes to the fundraising side of things, but to have almost 10 million people following you on Instagram, there's there's there's a there's a people resonating with your story, there isn't there?
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Like, do you see that in person as well when you're at these events?
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Do you see people coming up to you and talking to you, or is it more of an online thing?
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Um, that's like one thing that I love about social media that's completely different to mainstream uh media, like actual sort of movie stars or whatever, is you are not seen as like this weird god thing.
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Like, you know, the way uh uh Justin Bieber or whatever can't walk down a street without being like, you know, a riot happening around him.
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Yeah, that just does not happen to uh social media people like I've been to uh like TwitchCon or big sort of events like that, and it just doesn't happen to us, and I think that's because the nature of social media itself, almost in the title, even though social media is not social at all anymore, um, is like people you're seen as a normal person far more rather than this ethereal uh uh thing that represents like stuff on films, and so they just come over and be like, ah, you're a man from Instagram who does the shouting and the clips and the running, aren't you?
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And then so from that it's like just a normal conversation of kind of like no different to oh, I remember you.
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Um you're you my my uh my big brother went to the same uh university as you, and I think you you were over in my house before when I was young, something like that.
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Like it's just those sort of little connections, and um so the hellos are always just very you know, nice, not hard, not uh panicking to uh to deal with because that's that was something that I was always terrified of was that idea of like paparazzi were outside my house or anything like that.
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And I I I hoping that nothing changes with that, um, but very often we like at certain events people would come up to me, but day to day no one would um really say much.
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So uh marathons, loads of people sort of recognize me for what I'm doing.
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Uh and then in a pub, uh I'd say the same sort of thing.
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I I discussed this when we were in Paris.
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Um I don't think it's like I'm not I wouldn't some someone wouldn't see me at like uh in a supermarket, but like a pub environment is a is a place that's almost like you you have the permission, the social permission to go over and uh speak to somebody, whereas in a supermarket there's a bit more of a kind of uh a barrier where it's slightly more impolite to do that.
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Yeah.
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Do you ever do you ever feel the pressure of keeping this thing going?
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Because saying it is one thing and you are doing it, but there must be days where you wake up and you're like, I don't want to do this anymore.
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I don't want to keep doing this over and over and over again.
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Constantly, yeah.
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Yeah.
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Does that become like yeah, does it does that become draining?
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Does it wear on you?
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Sometimes, yeah.
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Um, but often it just sort of um like I I definitely get a lot of trouble from like everybody who uh who works with me, because often the result of that is just like you know, get the phone, it's like just throw it away, and it's like I am going to do like there's almost never an activity that I do that is not related in some regard to the uh the overall world record, but often some of it involves me just like I am not answering whatever question or doing whatever email thing, doing the sign-up to like you know, you need to do this thing for the tax, you need to do this thing for like you know registering as uh you need to register as a business, otherwise you'll never be able to register as a charity and like all these sort of admin stuff.
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Um, and whenever it's kind of a bit overwhelming, I'll like throw the phone away and it's just kind of like right, uh blinkers on, or not blinkers on, but um, I suppose away, yeah, the blinkers are on, and then it's like I'm gonna take my dogs out for a walk.
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Like, you know, it's sort of the stuff that needs to be done for daily life, but then I'd also be like putting a weight vest on because that's training for the various marathons, or I'm going out in my back garden and um, you know, I I do just a workout, which again would be training for uh the marathons or recovery training, whatever it may be.
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And it's like even if it is just like shutting down my phone and then just going on and doing the actual edits, uh, I find loads of stuff like that quite therapeutic.
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Now, obviously, like if I'm doing too many edits, I'll get sick of it, or if I'm doing um, you know, too much sort of uh exercise for whatever needs to be done, it'll have the same sort of effect.
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But often they're kind of like uh plate spinning stuff, and one will make my brain or body relax on the other, and um it will still sort of feel like progress is is being done.
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But in in a lot of ways, the the pressure kind of ends up being similar to what I was describing earlier on about how when uh I felt obviously that I have every right to be like falling apart and bawling my eyes out, and it's then like a a thought process of you're under an immense amount of pressure right now, you absolutely deserve to uh tell everyone to go away and to leave you in peace, but it's like but it's like, but do you want to be that guy who does that, or do you want to be the guy who's able to handle the pressure like a fucking submarine?
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And then when it's just kind of like you turn it into a bit of a choice with yourself, and it's like, no, I want to be the one who's able to like, you know, uh not get frustrated and have an angry phone call with someone who works with you uh because you've had like a lot of stuff build up earlier in the day, and now you're gonna vent it on that person.
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It's like, no, you don't don't be that person, be the one, be the person who you would prefer to be, and then it almost becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling, like uh uh I know that's an incorrect statement for this, but like it's it's like it reinforces itself where it's like I don't want to be that person, so I'm choosing not to be that person, and then it's like even if you've only done it for like five minutes or one phone call or one podcast as an example, uh, where it's like immensely stressed before doing it, and then you got through it well afterwards, it's like you feel good having you know um tolerated the uh the unpleasantries of of of life and you've come out as uh how you would have liked to, which then puts you in a good mood.
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Yeah, and I think that's that's like that's like a lesson for everyday life as well, isn't it?
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Almost because there are plenty of things that people don't want to do on the daily.
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This is obviously a very, very, very hyper extreme example, but I know I know there'll be people listening to this and relating to the fact that there are things every day that people don't want to do, and but getting through them will lead to positive results.
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Um, and yeah, I As I say, although this is hyper, hyper, hyper extreme, it is still that in a way.
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Um, when did it all become so much that it was like you've mentioned the team a couple of times?
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Like this is such a personal story, and it's your story, but there are now people that are part of that story within the team.
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When did it get to that point where you were like, I can't do this all on my own?
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Oh, it was gradual.
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Um, uh like uh different sort of um steps.
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So, like uh an example would be uh a guy who's been making a documentary um about the whole sort of experience for years now.
00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:42.160
Uh he just sent me a uh a DM over Instagram.
00:22:42.640 --> 00:22:53.759
Um his name's Michael, and his uh his father had brain cancer at the time when uh we were first speaking, and unfortunately, his father's past now.
00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:59.519
So, but that was his sort of his uh his his skin in the game to uh make this documentary.
00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:03.920
It's it's his profession anyway, so like it's uh the sort of uh that was the connection now.
00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:14.160
And so um Michael's very intelligent, and so with other sort of just uh uh questions every so often I would ask him, like, what do you think about this?
00:23:14.240 --> 00:23:15.039
What do you think about that?
00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:57.279
And like, because we would have the same sort of idea of using the fact that it's telling a story in order to um you know get uh a result of whatever kind at the end, so he would have a lot of insight to that, and then one of my friends, uh uh Foxy, as an example, she just sort of been like, you know, here, look, Ian, I've seen how you're doing with uh like a lot of social media stuff, but like you really need a manager for what you're doing because like the wording you've done for that little thing, I know it seems like it's a small thing to you, but like because you're working with this, like you need someone, and then so she volunteered for a while and then um she left her work and then uh uh loads of uh stuff changed like that.
00:23:57.440 --> 00:24:17.200
Uh my one of my oldest friends, uh Jonathan, he uh he's been helping me um as a as a volunteer from like he's the the first person to to help him, but now we're kind of pairing up and going together with uh opening up a uh a gym together, and so it's like it just kind of happens in in steps, and it hasn't always got gone well before.
00:24:17.279 --> 00:24:53.920
Like I've I've kind of lost a friendship with uh with someone who was uh coming over to help and um something happened with with his family, and then like he kind of uh went off and was a bit sort of uh radio silent, uh which built up a little bit of tension, as you can imagine, and then it was like, okay, I know you're going through some stuff at home, but like I've rented a room out for you, and and then that ended up actually being uh a very much a silver lining situation because uh that room was then uh randomly taken to someone else who'd help out with the um with the channel.
00:24:54.160 --> 00:25:04.319
It ended up being um Lucy, who's like you know, uh probably the person who is the busiest when it comes to helping out with all of the the admin stuff, and I don't know.
00:25:04.480 --> 00:25:21.200
Like we've been working together for about near nearly two years now, and uh if I didn't have her as part of the the team now, we would not be in as good a place as uh as we are, so it's just it's incremental and hopefully it never stops growing.
00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:25.119
And the relationships I'm fairly happy that Umra hasn't grown in a while.
00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:44.400
Yeah, I was gonna say um the relationships part of that is you know it's so that's an it that's an interesting story in its in itself, not only like how this has grown in terms of the story, but the relationships that I would imagine that changed when this first happened and how they've developed over the years as well.
00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:51.279
What what were those, you know, relationships with mates, relationships with family, relationships with work colleagues?
00:25:51.519 --> 00:26:01.279
When this first happened, when you were that 31-year-old that got told that he had terminal brain cancer, did you notice a change of how people acted towards you?
00:26:01.359 --> 00:26:04.079
Did you notice a way a change of how you were treated?
00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:14.319
And then not only at that point, but then when you're doing what you're doing now, how do people act that you knew back before this diagnosis towards you?
00:26:14.559 --> 00:26:20.640
Uh zero difference um for everything except for romantic relationships.
00:26:20.799 --> 00:26:25.920
That would be the only one that is different, and it it kind of makes sense though.
00:26:26.160 --> 00:26:38.880
Um, so obviously uh dating as a as a as a pitch when you have to kind of include when you're meeting someone new, uh, that like you know, yeah, I'm I'm dying soon, by the way.
00:26:39.039 --> 00:26:41.759
Just say you know, that changes that hugely.
00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:58.160
Whereas a friendship, it kind of doesn't affect a friendship because it's it's like you uh a relationship is something where it's like you're partnering up with a person to like you know, sort of go and live the entirety of your life together, where a friendship that's not a deal that has to be made.
00:26:58.319 --> 00:27:12.079
Like, I how many friends I I have loads of Australian friends, but like at the start of the relationship that we had, they never said, like, all right, now just saying now I'm I'm on a uh a visa here, I'm gonna be out of here in two years.
00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:18.079
Oh, well, we should not be friends, then things are your visas you know running out, it's like a grade, yes.
00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:20.480
You know, you don't have that sort of thing with a friendship.
00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:33.359
Whereas we're if you're like dating an Australian and she says, like, oh no, just so you know, like I've got a visa that's like finishing in two years, a sensible person would start thinking, like, all right, well, that is going to be a factor in two years' time.
00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:35.359
Are we gonna be able to do the long distance?
00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:39.200
Now, obviously, long distance is something that can be managed, death, not so much.
00:27:39.279 --> 00:27:55.200
It's like, I will I will phone you in the afterlife through, like, you know, a uh uh a oh what do they call like you know a crystal ball person like that, a soup search I can't remember what the title is, but you know, you're not gonna be able to do that with a romantic relationship.
00:27:55.440 --> 00:28:06.000
So uh that was uh noticeably different where you know dating apps or whatever and conversations would go on and they would just go and just uh stop.
00:28:06.160 --> 00:28:19.680
And ghosting is a very nasty thing in general, but I think uh it's easy to kind of sh like throw a lot of uh anger and frustration at that from like the person who has cancer or some uh suffering from that.
00:28:19.839 --> 00:28:31.119
But I think you have to have the in order to get through life without like you know turning into the like big sexist manosphere kind of guy, you have to have the empathy to think, all right, well, what's that situation like from the female perspective?
00:28:31.279 --> 00:28:46.480
Because she like what's the polite way to say, I'm really sorry, our first date went really well, but I don't want to go on a second date because you are probab possibly going to die soon, and that's gonna be heartbreaking to me.
00:28:46.559 --> 00:28:56.640
There's no nice way to say that, so I can understand from to a certain degree the uh the like I don't know what to say, so I'm just gonna say nothing.
00:28:56.960 --> 00:29:30.880
Yeah, and and nothing about this is fair, but that that is one of the things that feels incredibly unfair about the situation that you you are having to deal with things like that, but also how you've just spoken about that and articulated that from looking at the other poor person's point of view, that's an inc that's just so again, it's almost you're like taking yourself out and you're looking down at the situation, and that takes a lot to be doing that, and you do that seemingly quite a lot, like removing yourself and looking down.
00:29:31.039 --> 00:29:33.279
Does it ever feel like you're telling a bigger story?
00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:36.960
You are removed from yourself and you are looking down.
00:29:37.359 --> 00:29:41.680
Well, in some ways, yeah, but uh like also life is easier when you do that.
00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:50.960
The more you think how someone else thinks, the more you don't get like extremely frustrated where it's like, why is this idiot not doing this?
00:29:51.119 --> 00:29:55.039
Why is this person not voting for that political party rather than this political party?
00:29:55.200 --> 00:30:01.359
And it's like, all right, well, put yourself in their shoes, and then you'll become, ah, that makes sense.
00:30:01.519 --> 00:30:10.480
And now you're not as kind of fired up to it's like how often are like does someone um I suppose no replying is a is a simple example.
00:30:10.640 --> 00:30:15.279
Like, how often do you uh have a conversation with like one of your friends who's like, why didn't you text me back?
00:30:15.440 --> 00:30:20.720
And then all they have to say is simply those like, oh sorry, like I fell asleep, and then it's like, oh, okay.
00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:45.119
And now it's like now it's not like as you like people always tend to think of the worst, like what is it, the disaster situation where it's like you know, you didn't reply to me because you saw my message and you hate me, and like you know, you didn't want to like you know, come to the the gym with me or like go to the bar, and it's like nope, he just ate food and then like uh went into a food comma and fell asleep on the couch and that's it.
00:30:45.359 --> 00:30:47.039
Or he missed the train.
00:30:47.359 --> 00:30:53.680
You know, it's always like we always think the worst, but then often there's just a simple, oh, all right, yeah.
00:30:53.839 --> 00:31:12.160
And I find that obviously you don't have the um the actual person speaking that thing back to you, but if you really try to think of like uh take a bit of an Occam's razors uh scenario where it's like, all right, what's the most likely reason that this person has done this thing?
00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:25.039
And then you can kind of um have a bit of sort of uh understanding for why that happened, and then with that you can kind of you don't feel as uh as much anger when you understand the reasoning.
00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:30.880
You mentioned the tumour and and saying, you know, it it hasn't it hasn't grown recently.
00:31:31.039 --> 00:31:37.599
For people that don't know, what is the process of of keeping up to date with size of the tumour?
00:31:37.839 --> 00:31:44.319
What is the kind of um the process of like visiting hospitals and all that side of things?
00:31:44.640 --> 00:31:57.440
Uh yeah, it's just going down to the uh the Royal Marsden, which is down in Sutton, um, and I just go there four times uh four times a year, and they just do an MRI on my head, check if there's um growth.
00:31:57.680 --> 00:32:04.400
And I at this point I don't even know what the if there was growth, what would change in terms of treatment.
00:32:04.640 --> 00:32:19.839
In in some regards, I've kind of done the done a similar thing with like I put my head in the sand, and it's like I feel like from experience when I first uh got cancer, I did a bit of research on it, and I was like nothing but bleak stuff about like a glioblastoma.
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:22.960
So I was just kind of like, alright, I'm not doing that again.
00:32:23.119 --> 00:32:37.519
I when my doctors tell me that I need to like come in for more chemo, I'll just do it rather than become like uh becoming like um not not that I'd be a hypochondriac, obviously it would be like the complete opposite.
00:32:39.039 --> 00:32:43.039
Yeah, but not to become obsessed with like you know, well, what about this kind of treatment?
00:32:43.200 --> 00:32:44.000
What about that kind of treatment?
00:32:44.160 --> 00:32:45.200
Can we do this kind of treatment?
00:32:45.279 --> 00:33:06.240
Uh like I'm not an oncologist, so uh for me to start searching in depth for that sort of stuff, that like not to discourage that you know people haven't saved their own lives by doing that, but I feel that at a certain level, it's sometimes better to just have someone else be the driver and you be the passenger.
00:33:06.480 --> 00:33:19.119
Because in a scenario like myself, where I already have a thousand things where I need to be the driver for when it's sensible to offload uh something to just do it.
00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:29.200
So I know as much as I kind of need, feel that I need to know about my uh my treatments and my uh brain cancer situation.
00:33:29.279 --> 00:33:31.759
And then outside of that, it's like not my problem.
00:33:31.920 --> 00:33:41.440
I don't have a you know a doctorate in medical science specifically on you know cancer, so I will leave that to the professionals to do their best.
00:33:41.759 --> 00:33:46.480
That's gotta be very hard to put your trusts like that into somebody though.
00:33:46.720 --> 00:33:47.519
No, not at all.
00:33:47.599 --> 00:33:54.720
It's just like you don't um you you to not learn about these sort of things and focus on it.
00:33:54.799 --> 00:34:04.799
It means that like if it's it's like if a mechanic was over and they were just sort of fixing something within the house, you wouldn't you just trust them that you know they're gonna do that to the best of their ability.
00:34:04.880 --> 00:34:10.960
Now, like obviously some people would be like, you know, oh well that's how they get you, you know, you didn't need to pay for like that sort of stuff.
00:34:11.039 --> 00:34:21.679
But if you just like you have a uh a subscription with like like Apple Care or whatever it is, and if you just put your phone in, you kind of just like know that they'll come back and then it's oh yeah, we fixed everything about your phone, and here it is.
00:34:21.840 --> 00:34:36.400
And it's like you don't have to learn the depths of uh how they restructure the uh a cracked you know phone screen in order to sort of trust that they will sort of do their best to take care of that sort of stuff.
00:34:36.559 --> 00:34:53.519
And like there's there's two benefits to both sides, but I think uh like in a lot of situations the NHS being not a paid for hospital well not a profit-based hospital system is amazing in a lot of in a lot of ways.
00:34:53.760 --> 00:35:06.239
Uh whereas uh a profit-based system like uh like the in the American system can have its benefits, but like they they both are like I would much prefer the NHS.
00:35:06.320 --> 00:35:12.880
I like obviously you can't get um you can't just throw money at, you know, I need these stitches now, get them sorted out.
00:35:13.039 --> 00:35:21.280
You can't do that with the NHS, but it also means that they're not trying to like give you stuff that you don't need because they profit from it.
00:35:21.519 --> 00:35:23.599
Yeah, no, that makes that makes total sense.
00:35:23.679 --> 00:35:30.559
And like obviously this situation is not one that should be profited from.
00:35:30.719 --> 00:35:35.199
Like, and a lot of people's situations are not one in my mind that should be profited from.
00:35:35.440 --> 00:35:42.079
But obviously, yeah, we're getting into a different conversation there, probably where we're talking about US and uh and UK.
00:35:42.239 --> 00:35:52.320
Um, oh I I get it, I get it a lot of time because like people in the comment section are like, oh yeah, they uh the government already has a cure for cancer, and they're like, you know, they're just keeping it because it's very profitable.
00:35:52.480 --> 00:35:54.559
And my response is always very simple.
00:35:54.639 --> 00:35:56.159
It's like, which governments?
00:35:56.400 --> 00:35:59.360
Yeah, it's the government, like you know, that's a thing.
00:35:59.519 --> 00:36:16.239
Like a lot of people like respond to stuff as if like it's it's like there's not 200 governments in the world, and it's like you do know like there's a good 30% of the like the healthcare systems of the world are free, yeah.
00:36:16.400 --> 00:36:29.440
So it's like it does not benefit them in any way to have a cure for cancer and be like, ha ha, we're gonna have more of our citizens die, and then they're not gonna be able to like be part of the workforce, which is what we want.
00:36:29.599 --> 00:36:33.679
It's like that that doesn't work for loads of different places.
00:36:33.840 --> 00:37:07.440
It certainly would work like that if that was the exclusive thing all around the world, then yeah, I would certainly start being a bit more of like you know, conspiracy theory with that, and it's not like it hasn't been proven with lots of like health insurance um companies in America, that has been proven, so it's not like there's that it's uh a stupid thing to be doubtful about that sort of stuff, but when you start thinking like this is a worldwide thing, it starts to that's where it starts to to sort of uh fade away, erode away that sort of um uh conspiracy theory.
00:37:07.760 --> 00:37:09.280
How much attention do you pay?
00:37:09.519 --> 00:37:14.079
And obviously not about that necessarily, but you know, you mentioned the comment section there.
00:37:14.239 --> 00:37:19.119
How much how much attention do you pay to those comment sections of of videos?
00:37:19.280 --> 00:37:23.679
Because I can imagine over the years there's been some proper craziness in there.
00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:25.519
Well, yeah, well, uh two things.
00:37:25.679 --> 00:37:29.440
I love arguing, I absolutely love it.
00:37:29.599 --> 00:37:30.639
I can see that, you know.
00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:31.679
I can see that.
00:37:31.920 --> 00:37:33.760
I adore a good debate.
00:37:33.920 --> 00:37:42.400
Now, sometimes people are just dumb, and it's just kind of like there's no point in and having an argument because you're just like kind of uh you're just saying things that are stupid.
00:37:42.480 --> 00:37:46.159
Uh, and so I kind of don't um uh engage in people like that.
00:37:46.239 --> 00:37:55.199
But sometimes when you have someone who's trying to make an intelligent point, I like to just kind of uh get in there and uh prove them wrong because it's a fun thing to do.
00:37:55.280 --> 00:38:06.320
Uh whereas on the other side of it, I am very like especially in the last couple of years, uh uh we'll be going on a tangent to fully explain this like one, two, three, four thing.
00:38:06.480 --> 00:38:25.119
Uh, but my the people who follow my account are very much a community at this stage, and it is a really wonderful thing to see like um when we do when we kind of plan ahead for it, it's like, hey guys, I fairly I'm fairly sure this video could be something that could be seen by millions.
00:38:25.360 --> 00:38:50.000
Not like to say something goes viral is kind of like um uh not quite accurate, but people use it to just say like successful video, and it's like I think this could be a successful video, I'm gonna upload it this time so you guys try and comment as soon as the uh the timer is up, and hopefully that will kind of um tinker around with the the algorithm to send it out to more people, and they absolutely love that.
00:38:50.400 --> 00:38:56.639
And I like I thought it'd be more like a chore that I'm trying to give to people like, hey guys, can you help me out with this?
00:38:56.800 --> 00:39:17.679
But they really rally behind it where it's like no, we want we want your videos like they're a team that we want your videos to do really well because it's like what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and so when like they get really excited where it's like hey, like 10 million views, that's brilliant, and they kind of know they understand that they had an impact on that.
00:39:17.920 --> 00:39:52.239
So um the the comment section is very um uh sort of uh two sides of a coin where one is just like you know, oh I'm gonna sweep the legs out of this moron, or the other one is just like really nice touching sort of um uh uh uh like community elements, which is um something that I kind of uh I saw a bit of it at the start of the the campaign where people were just sort of resonating with their own Kansas stories and saying like kind of oh you're you're great, you're inspirational, and this sort of stuff.
00:39:52.320 --> 00:40:06.239
And it's a bit short and not to say I don't want to like uh say that it's meaningless if when I see it to kind of like you know, just kind of make it like oh like a blase sort of thing, but often it doesn't quite kind of uh uh enter into my mind.
00:40:06.559 --> 00:40:29.039
It kind of seems like uh a little bit of an empty gesture, but sometimes when you see someone who writes out like a longer sort of paragraph where it's like I'm dealing with my father who has you know this pancreatic cancer, and um I showed him your like videos for the first time, it actually helped put him in a good mood, and now he's out like walking.
00:40:29.199 --> 00:40:35.840
Stuff like that does uh not every time, but like often it does sort of um sink in quite a lot.
00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:52.800
But it's the same thing where sometimes I try not to let it sink in, and I know it's a positive thing uh to do, but often it's like don't get sucked in, yeah, because then you'll get sucked into the comments and then you'll be not focusing on what the ultimate um goal is to do.
00:40:52.880 --> 00:41:02.880
But it's uh it's way more positive stuff than negative by like a massive, massive, massive ratio.
00:41:03.199 --> 00:41:08.880
Debating with the king, I feel like that's a podcast, uh that's a podcast in itself, isn't it, mate?
00:41:09.039 --> 00:41:11.280
Like I think that that's something we could start off.
00:41:11.840 --> 00:41:12.159
Sure.
00:41:12.320 --> 00:41:31.039
Well, like that is actually something that I'm looking to try and um uh and do because um I you know when it's like someone when it's like a when a certain number of people tell you something that you don't believe about yourself, it's kind of like all right, three people that are not related to each other have said the same thing to me.
00:41:31.360 --> 00:41:36.719
Now I'm starting to realize that there has to be a grain of truth into it, even if I don't believe it myself.
00:41:36.880 --> 00:41:57.440
And I've had several people say, like, um you're a good sort of middle ground um icon to uh younger lads that is not kind of heavily on the Andrew Tate side, but then also not sort of like, you know, you must be like super emotional all the time and be empathetical to absolutely everybody.
00:41:57.599 --> 00:42:10.400
And it's like uh in the middle where it's like, no, you shouldn't be like, you know, mean to people for no reason, but at the same time, you shouldn't be soft to absolutely everybody because that doesn't mean uh uh necessarily a good thing.
00:42:10.480 --> 00:42:18.000
You have to be able to go, no, fuck off, you can't do that at the same time as you're not just saying it all the time because you're pent up and you're full of rage.
00:42:18.239 --> 00:43:02.800
And so something that I'm thinking about starting to do is to do um sort of sit-down conversations with like whoever wants to come up and uh start speaking about um whatever subject it may be and try to uh push on the uh some of the like the simple sort of um life advice stuff of keeping yourself composed, not letting your anger be the thing that comes out of your communication first, to like take a pause, take a breath, because I think that's a growing problem that um everybody has with defaulting to social media, particularly with younger people after COVID, with uh like a severe drop in person-to-person conversation.
00:43:03.039 --> 00:43:29.039
Um I think a huge I actually think a huge amount of the problems in the world stems from um the kind of the uh like a bit of a changing in the how people uh start relationships with social media apps, with dating apps, which then leads to resentment, which then leads to you know uh sexism, and then that kind of pools into the actual world um quite naturally.
00:43:29.199 --> 00:43:54.559
And I kind of think that uh to try and sit down with a lot of people and be like, just go back to the basics of going over to someone in a bar and saying you like them, and you'll get rejected more times than not, but somewhere along the line, someone will just like you for who you are, and I know that sounds like the classic, like you know, oh, you don't need to like just be yourself.
00:43:54.719 --> 00:43:59.760
There is truth to that, but something that I find that like wasn't spoken about enough was you gotta be yourself.
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:10.719
Most people won't like you though, so you've got to do it like a hundred times, and then you'll find like, you know, uh a partner that you can, you know, sort of uh spend a significant amount of of time with.
00:44:11.039 --> 00:44:13.119
It's so important as well to have those conversations.
00:44:13.199 --> 00:44:15.679
And I think actually that would be an amazing thing for you to do, mate.
00:44:15.760 --> 00:44:17.840
I'd absolutely love to see you doing that.
00:44:18.159 --> 00:44:21.199
But I think this is all so new, isn't it?
00:44:21.360 --> 00:44:30.960
Especially when you when you think about the social media piece that you just mentioned there and the dating app piece and how people meet and how people you know choose to find the person and and all that sort of stuff.
00:44:31.039 --> 00:44:38.960
Like, it's all so new, like we really know nothing about any of this because we're pretty much the first people to be living through it.
00:44:39.119 --> 00:44:44.719
So, like, of course, there's gonna be loads of weirdness around the whole thing.
00:44:44.880 --> 00:44:53.519
And I think one of the most important things is that there is debate and people do talk about it, because without that, there's never gonna be any change.
00:44:53.840 --> 00:44:54.239
Yes.
00:44:54.320 --> 00:45:06.480
Uh, just to go back on what you said there, though, that is one thing that I'm gonna make sure that I'm doing completely different, well, not completely different, but quite different to which what seems to be probably the most popular because it's always like negative.
00:45:06.639 --> 00:45:13.039
Um, unfortunately, the most watched stuff on the internet is uh negative first, then neutral, and then positive.
00:45:13.360 --> 00:45:18.159
And uh if it's if it's crap, if you put it together the wrong way, it's you know, you're not gonna get any views.
00:45:18.239 --> 00:45:22.079
But typically, um, and it's not this is nothing new to social media.
00:45:22.239 --> 00:45:24.880
We've already we've known this for years with like the news.
00:45:25.039 --> 00:45:27.039
What like if it bleeds, it leads.
00:45:27.199 --> 00:45:37.840
And so uh something that you'll often see is like you know, uh hardline kind of shouty debates of people where it's like men are bad, no, it's women, no, it's this, no, it's the foreigners, no, it's the government, no, it's this.
00:45:38.000 --> 00:46:21.519
Whereas I want to try and have a thing where it's more about people um talking and just saying what their experience is with certain stuff, which I'd hope is then something that people can um uh look at and understand more rather than they're right, they're wrong, because I don't think that's to a degree it is important to kind of hear that sort of stuff, but I think in a lot of ways it's not helpful because it just kind of builds up this um let's use men and women as an example where it's just kind of like you know, no, like the all the divorce rates are cause of men, no, all the divorce rates are cause of women, and it's like that's not helping the divorce rate at all.
00:46:21.679 --> 00:46:30.239
So it's like if we can start talking about how uh why are there more breakups like that are related to this, why do men feel like this?
00:46:30.400 --> 00:46:32.079
Why do women feel like this about men?
00:46:32.159 --> 00:46:39.119
And if it's just more spoken about and not shouted about, I feel like we'll actually make some progress with that.
00:46:40.159 --> 00:46:45.119
It's having those conversations that make you have conversations with yourself, I think.
00:46:45.440 --> 00:46:46.559
That's the main thing, isn't it?
00:46:46.639 --> 00:46:54.000
It's like as you say, no one's gonna be inspired to think by this is how you need to think.
00:46:54.159 --> 00:47:00.079
They're inspired to think by here's a few questions, and these hopefully will make you think.
00:47:00.400 --> 00:47:07.679
Um, right, let's jump back to run in, man, because I've I I'm aware that we've chatted a lot about a whole range of things.
00:47:07.840 --> 00:47:12.079
Um, and I want to touch on obviously the running part of this of this whole journey.
00:47:12.320 --> 00:47:17.119
Um, you're wearing your Paris marathon top, you said in your intro, you know, it's a couple of days out the back of that.
00:47:17.199 --> 00:47:21.119
You're about to jump into Manchester Marathon as we're speaking this weekend.
00:47:21.280 --> 00:47:26.159
This will come out after Manchester Marathon, but then you're doing London as well, right?
00:47:26.320 --> 00:47:27.360
Am I right in saying?
00:47:27.440 --> 00:47:30.320
So like you're spinning through these marathons right now.
00:47:30.400 --> 00:47:33.119
Um yeah, I got five that are all a week apart.
00:47:33.360 --> 00:47:34.079
Which is mad.
00:47:34.159 --> 00:47:35.840
So after London, where are you going?
00:47:36.480 --> 00:47:50.400
Uh back home to Dublin for the Dublin half marathon, which I'm like I'm really looking forward to in general because the uh the route goes like just all around like Dublin and my own neighborhood.
00:47:50.639 --> 00:47:53.039
Um so I'm really looking forward to that.
00:47:53.280 --> 00:48:03.599
Now it probably will be quite tricky because uh early May could get quite hot weather, and uh because it's the 3rd of May, I'm gonna dress up as Darth Vader.
00:48:03.760 --> 00:48:07.360
Because if you're a Star Wars fan, 4th of May, May the 4th be with you.
00:48:07.519 --> 00:48:11.840
Uh so I'm gonna dress up as Darth Vader, but with a very heavy amount of gear.
00:48:12.000 --> 00:48:17.280
So it's like um, you know the way Darth Vader kind of walks, he kind of like he walks a bit robotic.
00:48:17.360 --> 00:48:28.880
I kind of thought, like, oh yeah, I'll I'll wear loads of heavy clothing because it'll like they're usually kind of like strapped, the the straps that are used for holding the weights are usually quite black and like robotic looking.
00:48:28.960 --> 00:48:34.079
So it's like, oh, I could do those two things together and it'll um it'll look uh real funny.
00:48:34.239 --> 00:48:42.079
But if it's a hot if it's a hot May day and I'm wearing like a Dart Vader like mask, it's gonna be very, very sweaty.
00:48:42.320 --> 00:48:45.039
And and talk to me about the carrying of the weight as well.
00:48:45.360 --> 00:48:49.119
So I have a I wouldn't call it a knee injury.
00:48:49.199 --> 00:48:53.039
I literally went for a uh a run uh last night.
00:48:53.199 --> 00:49:47.840
Um, but I have a my kneecap gets pulled up by my quadriceps just from running form not being great, and so that doesn't really have a factor, uh too big a factor when you're running like a 10k or 5k, but when you go up to marathon amounts, it's there it like uh everything happens in a marathon and like kind of um uh at an exponential rate, so like whatever you're doing incorrectly, like if you're carrying a five kilos, you do that for the first three hours of a walk, it's hard, but like you know, by the end of it, when you're doing like eight hours, you're feeling it 10 times more than at the start, and so um my knee injury I I walk marathons at the moment, but hopefully by the end of the year uh I'll be back to being able to run properly through them all.
00:49:48.159 --> 00:49:52.880
And what's it like carrying this weight over that distance?
00:49:53.039 --> 00:49:55.119
Like, how does it feel on the body?
00:49:55.280 --> 00:49:57.760
It's gotta be much more difficult, right?
00:49:58.079 --> 00:50:00.559
Well, easier in some ways, harder in other.
00:50:00.800 --> 00:50:11.679
So, like it it it elongates how long of the marathon is time-wise, which certainly does have a an impact on how to do the day itself.
00:50:11.920 --> 00:50:21.039
Um, the shoulders are definitely the thing that takes the the burden of the um the extra amount of effort.
00:50:21.280 --> 00:50:25.519
Some people would think, like, you know, oh my god, how do you carry that with like you know, your legs must be wrecked?
00:50:25.599 --> 00:50:47.039
And it's like, no, actually the legs are not as um not to try and like you know fat shame anybody or anything like that, but if you think about like 20 kilos, that wouldn't be an uncommon thing for if you look around in a marathon, loads of people who are overweight will do marathons, and that's something that I always try to like uh push to other people who are like, I could never do a marathon.
00:50:47.119 --> 00:51:10.079
It's like you might never do a marathon really fast, but go down and witness a marathon and you will see like you know, old ladies who like you know do not care about their diet, but they're just like, you know, someone has been lost in their life or someone is suffering from something in their life that resonates with them, so they're gonna do the marathon, and they just fucking get it done, they just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
00:51:10.239 --> 00:51:14.880
The population of a marathon is often no different than like the population on a public bus.
00:51:15.039 --> 00:51:25.840
It is inspirational to see that uh uh other people are giving it a go, and it's not just all these like super athletes that are just little darts that will just like that.
00:51:25.920 --> 00:51:30.880
Like you do not have to be those people, they're the people that will be able to do the marathon very fast.
00:51:31.199 --> 00:51:33.760
You don't have to do it fast, you just have to get over the line.
00:51:34.159 --> 00:51:36.480
26.2 miles for everybody, isn't it?
00:51:36.559 --> 00:51:38.400
And that's the that's the beauty of it.
00:51:38.480 --> 00:51:47.360
And and kind of going back to part of the conversation where we said, you know, you did a marathon before your diagnosis, and then after your diagnosis, you thought, you know what, what do I do?
00:51:47.519 --> 00:51:48.960
Like, what is the vehicle?
00:51:49.119 --> 00:51:49.920
What can I pick?
00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:53.039
And the marathon has but has kind of become that.
00:51:53.360 --> 00:52:04.079
Um, you know, do you feel from the first one you did after your diagnosis to the ones you're doing now, do you have the different story for each one?
00:52:04.239 --> 00:52:06.320
Are they different, or does it start to feel the same?
00:52:06.480 --> 00:52:08.159
Has it started to feel the same?
00:52:08.559 --> 00:52:11.360
I mean, some of they all have their own stories in their own ways.
00:52:11.440 --> 00:52:18.719
Uh like some of them are uh like uh the sort of the the core principles stay the same with a lot of them.
00:52:18.800 --> 00:52:26.480
But I mean, like even changing from running to uh walking them now, like we're in a very new phase of the walking marathon stuff.
00:52:26.639 --> 00:52:43.599
I think New York would have been no, London, London last year would have been the first one, um, and then New York was was a new walking with the weights, the f the the London Marathon one I dressed up as a you know chicken jockey.
00:52:43.679 --> 00:52:46.719
Do you remember that was going on for a while with the Minecraft video on Minecraft?
00:52:47.039 --> 00:52:53.920
Yeah, I I do know what, mate, one of my favorite things is when you scroll back through your Instagram and you see some of the outfits, it is wild.
00:52:54.000 --> 00:53:01.360
I feel like like a deck of cards or something needs to be created or or something with like all of these different outfits on.
00:53:01.599 --> 00:53:04.719
Well, I mean, that's part of the idea of like the social media thing.
00:53:04.800 --> 00:53:24.480
It's like the uh uh something that I kind of knew from working like uh in a charity uh business before is uh and way more prominent now is something called donation fatigue, which is like people just get tired of um seeing the same thing and it almost doesn't bop into the head whatsoever.
00:53:24.719 --> 00:53:41.599
And so stuff that you and I probably would have grown up seeing a lot more would be like you know, the horror stories of like what's going on in like the starving parts of the world where it's like these children that have like almost skin and no muscle on their bones, and it's unbelievably horrible to see.
00:53:41.760 --> 00:54:02.239
Um, but then we were saturated with it so much, not to say that it is a like um a showing of uh a lack of empathy for human beings, but it's like when you are overwhelmed, not overwhelmed, but when you're over like burdened with uh images, whatever it may be, you just get used to them because that's how we can actually survive as human beings.
00:54:02.400 --> 00:54:12.480
And a simple example would be like you know, men in who were in like World War One and World War II, they got used to seeing horrible stuff all all the time because they have to.
00:54:12.639 --> 00:54:37.519
If you don't get used to it, then you can't actually function as a person, it's just part of like how we get through things, and so because it stopped having an effect where people wanted to donate, you can kind of start seeing it a lot more now where the charity ads that will be shown on television or on social media, they have a lot more fun in them and they have a lot more inspiration and hope.
00:54:37.760 --> 00:54:47.039
Whereas earlier on in the decades, they were focusing more on um trying to really hit the impact of like you know, this is what's going on here.
00:54:47.199 --> 00:55:21.679
Look at this, you can solve this with with with finances, and now it's more kind of like um we want you to get involved because you can be a part of this community to help and help people and like bring people back to like better parts of their life, and it's a slightly different sort of um psychology behind the two things, but that was a big reason for me kind of like I'm gonna put the fun in fundraising and I'm gonna be like this clown where it's um you're uh I'm I'm advertising something that is horrible, but making it seem palatable for anybody to join in.
00:55:21.920 --> 00:55:26.239
Because if I was to just be like, you know, I'm dying, I'm dying, I'm dying.
00:55:26.400 --> 00:56:14.960
I'm sure loads of people who are dealing with cancer situations themselves would be like, like, here, look, I hope that guy does well, I hope that guy does break that charity world record, but I don't want to follow him because I don't want to be reminded of you know my mother's death or the the horrible stuff that's going on with my own child because he's gonna be a reminding me of that constantly, and so I was like, I've got to think of a way to do this that people are gonna be to get behind, but at the same time, it's like I've got to do it in a way that makes me that still tells people that I do actually have cancer because it ends up being this very difficult sort of plate spinning where it's like if I take the piss out of it too much, people then stop believing that I actually have it in the first place.
00:56:15.119 --> 00:56:26.639
But if I then go like nothing but cancer, cancer, cancer, sad, sad, sad, then it's like this is too much for a lot of people to um stomach, so it's it's hard to get it right.
00:56:27.039 --> 00:56:29.199
And you mentioned the charity world record there, mate.
00:56:29.280 --> 00:56:42.719
This is probably a really good place to wrap it up, even though like I feel like I want to talk to you for about another three hours, but um you mentioned that record again, and that is what we are looking to break.
00:56:43.039 --> 00:56:44.719
Is there a number on that record?
00:56:44.800 --> 00:56:45.920
Like, what is the number?
00:56:46.079 --> 00:56:48.000
Is there a number we're looking towards?
00:56:48.239 --> 00:56:53.039
Um I so I could get to the it's 2.3 million and change.
00:56:53.280 --> 00:56:56.159
Um exact well, did you want the exact numbers?
00:56:56.239 --> 00:56:56.800
You probably don't.
00:56:57.119 --> 00:57:00.639
2.3 million and change is more than enough.
00:57:00.880 --> 00:57:07.360
But if people did want to support, follow, how do they help to get to that point?
00:57:07.679 --> 00:57:12.719
Whatever social media channels you use, uh uh subscribe or follow.
00:57:12.880 --> 00:57:16.719
Subscribing exclusive to uh uh YouTube.
00:57:17.199 --> 00:57:24.639
Some people have gotten confused with that before, and it's gotten me into a bit of trouble where it's like if you subscribe onto TikTok or Instagram, there's money involved.
00:57:24.719 --> 00:57:28.320
That's like, no, no, no, no, no, fuck, fuck, fuck, no, no, I don't mean that.
00:57:28.480 --> 00:57:50.000
But um, yeah, either one, ideally, YouTube, YouTube gets way more money from uh sponsorships r relevant to how many um people that follow that channel uh is and then if you want to go further, the more um the reason that uh um sponsorships uh get involved and advertising gets involved is from something called engagement.
00:57:50.159 --> 00:57:58.239
So if you want to increase how much you're engaging with the the channel, the notification button is magic, absolute magic to have.
00:57:58.400 --> 00:58:07.679
I think a lot of people get uh put off by it because it's like I don't want to have my phone ringing every time you put a video up, and it's like they don't all have to be like that.
00:58:07.840 --> 00:58:30.559
Most of them are just like if you put on uh a banner or even like within the app itself, it'll just show you a little red thing, being like so-and-so has uh posted today, and then if you go over and see the video, all of that is just um getting closer to uh uh some product coming along and be like, oh wow, this guy when he like puts a video up, loads of people see it.
00:58:30.639 --> 00:58:38.880
I would like him to do that for these shoes, for these t-shirts, and um and from that it goes on and money goes to Jardin.
00:58:38.960 --> 00:58:48.320
So worth mentioning as well that um you'll be back running with us at run through in Brighton and a couple of other events um before the end of the year as well.
00:58:48.639 --> 00:58:54.400
So absolutely that's so exciting, and mate, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on.
00:58:55.199 --> 00:58:56.079
Maybe running, maybe.
00:58:56.719 --> 00:58:58.239
Maybe running, maybe running.
00:58:58.480 --> 00:59:01.280
Okay, well, maybe I'll come and run together with you, man.
00:59:01.360 --> 00:59:02.320
That would be pretty sick.
00:59:02.400 --> 00:59:04.079
But yeah, thank you so much for doing this, man.
00:59:04.480 --> 00:59:05.440
Yeah, pleasure, Ben.
00:59:05.599 --> 00:59:06.559
See you again soon.