A year ago today on July 3, 2020, Tom Riley — friend, father, husband, brother, son, cousin — was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. And on June 5, 2021, Tom Riley — guitarist, writer, poet, podcaster, cancer advocate, observer of humanity, orator, beloved — passed away. He was 54.

What does it feel like to discover you have stage 4 pancreatic cancer? And how do you tell others? Tom walks us through the day he received a terminal diagnosis and, additionally, the moment he had to say the words, “I have pancreatic cancer,” to his family.