THE SHOW

Time is short. But especially when you have a diagnosis of terminal cancer.

Tom Riley is dying from cancer. But that isn’t stopping him from starting a kickass podcast. Eff Cancer is a collection of dialogues with people navigating serious illness from every direction. Episodes feature deep, direct conversations with Tom’s family, other cancer patients, nurses and doctors who work with serious illness, and the people trying to advance and improve healthcare.

This show explores life, death, helping people, dealing with fear, coping with loss, and more. But these won't be downer discussions. They’ll be filled with laughter as well as honest explorations about what it means to live with serious illness. In Tom’s case that's almost always with humor.

None of us know when our final moment will come. So in the meantime, let’s focus instead on the beauty of now.

Eff Cancer. But embrace life. And, as we sign off every episode:

“Remember I love you.” (RILY)

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THE HOST

I’m Tom Riley. This past July, I was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer that had also spread to my liver. Surprise! I asked my doctor, “If I don’t go into treatment, how long do I have?” The response was “less than six months.”

That will get your attention.

Before that awful moment, I spent 15 years as a family caregiver, patient advocate, and power of attorney for my mom after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Based on those experiences, I developed a new technology to help patients and caregivers communicate immediately and directly with their doctor and care team.

After my diagnosis, I went from working side by side with doctors and nurses to being a full-time patient (And now I use that technology I created, TapCloud, to communicate with my doctors.) But I’m also a human being — and a very alive one at that — trying to understand where I fit in the world, while living on the very edge of it.

Whether I know you or I don’t, I love you and hope you will join me on my journey.

 
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THE CO-HOST

I’m Chloe Riley and no, that isn’t your brain tricking you, Tom and I have the same last name! We’re cousins who go wayyy back. Back into that decadent, crazy time known as the 1980s! But we swear, we’ll leave that decade to its own devices for the purpose of this show.

I’ve been lucky enough to get to watch all the amazing things Tom’s done over the years, from his blog, to his (epic!) collection of Apple technology, to his venture in creating TapCloud (a technology centered around patient communication), and now, this amazing podcast.

We have a mutual love for both writing and humor (and telling it the heck like it is!), and now, we have a mutual major disdain for that fickle, awful thing called cancer. Screw you cancer. (You heard me.) On this show, we’re going to talk about some fun things and some not so fun things. We’re going to laugh and cry (but mostly laugh). And, as an NLP (normal lifespan person), I may not fully understand the depths of what’s going on for Tom (or, as I like to call him, “Tommy”), but I sure as heck am going to try. To understand. To listen. To crack bad jokes. To demonstrate love. 

We’re on a mission to take Tommy’s life back from that bastard known as cancer. Join us, won’t you?