Today my guest is Chris Curtis, a Cancer Advocate and founder of the UK-based Swallows Head & Neck Cancer support group and charity. In this episode, we find out about Chris’ early life and his love of sport, football, food, cooking, hospitality and marketing. Chris offers insights into his more recent life and his diagnosis and treatment of stage-four throat cancer. We chat about the mental, physical, and psychological impact on Chris’ everyday life and how, in the months following his treatment, he felt the need for comfort, support and hope from someone who had gone through a similar experience. We learn how Chris took a moment to reflect and engage with “his previous self” – someone who was skilled in management, advertising, sales, marketing and promotion – to turn his dream into a reality. Beginning with a marketing plan and laminated posters, Chris soon found support from willing and compassionate healthcare workers to expand and grow the Swallows group and to offer support and hope to other head and neck cancer patients. Chris reflects on the fundamental purpose of the group: a friendly and safe social space with open conversations between patients, caregivers, family and friends. We chat about running a successful group – both face-to-face and online, training of support group leaders and using community education strategies to address the various social inequalities which exist around public health and head and neck cancer. Chris brings an optimistic and positive voice in helping make a difference to thousands of cancer patients around the world.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-curtis-advocate/
https://twitter.com/swallowsgroup
https://theswallows.org.uk/