What would you do if you were told you only had six months to live? Lee Crompton, a husband and father of two young children, faced this exact scenario, and his response will surprise and inspire you.

Who Is This For?

This episode is for anyone grappling with life's uncertainties, facing a health crisis, or seeking inspiration to live life to the fullest. If you've ever wondered how to maintain a sense of humor and perspective in the face of adversity, especially when it impacts your role as a parent and partner, Lee's story will resonate with you.

Looking for the Links?


What's It All About?

In this gripping episode, Lee Crompton shares his extraordinary journey of being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of thyroid cancer. From the initial shock of a terminal diagnosis to unexpectedly surviving beyond the predicted timeframe, Lee's story is a rollercoaster of emotions, filled with dark humor and profound insights. You'll hear about his struggles with mental health, the devastating impact on his family, and the unique challenges of living with a "borrowed time" mentality as a husband and father. Lee candidly discusses the mental toll of facing mortality while trying to be present for his wife and young children, offering a raw and honest look at the complexities of family life in the shadow of a terminal diagnosis.

Some Key Takeaways:

• Discover how humor can be a powerful coping mechanism in the face of life-threatening illness, even when dealing with family responsibilities

• Gain insight into the complex emotions and mental health challenges that come with surviving a terminal diagnosis, particularly as a parent

• Learn about the importance of community and sharing experiences in navigating life's toughest challenges, especially when balancing family life with personal health crises

Press PLAY on today’s episode to hear Lee's incredible story of resilience, humor, and hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, and how it has shaped his perspective as a husband and father.

Today's Featured Guest

Lee Crompton is a cancer survivor, mental health advocate, and host of the Mind Cake podcast. Diagnosed with anaplastic thyroid cancer in 2020, Lee has defied the odds and uses his experience to help others navigate their own mental health journeys. With a unique blend of humor and honesty, Lee shares his story to inspire and support those facing life's toughest challenges, particularly focusing on the impact of serious illness on family dynamics and parental responsibilities.

Remember, no matter what you are going through, you are never alone. Reach out to your podcast host, Kevin Lowe, or to today's spectacular guest, Lee Compton.


Hey, it's Kevin!


I hope you enjoyed today's episode! If there is ever anything I can do for you, please don't hesitate to reach out. Below, you will find ALL the places and ALL the ways to connect!


  • I would LOVE to hear from you! Send me a Voice Message
  • Want to be a guest on GRIT, GRACE, & INSPIRATION? Send Kevin Lowe a message on PodMatch!

  • Show Notes

    What would you do if you were told you only had six months to live? Lee Crompton, a husband and father of two young children, faced this exact scenario, and his response will surprise and inspire you.

    Who Is This For?

    This episode is for anyone grappling with life's uncertainties, facing a health crisis, or seeking inspiration to live life to the fullest. If you've ever wondered how to maintain a sense of humor and perspective in the face of adversity, especially when it impacts your role as a parent and partner, Lee's story will resonate with you.

    Looking for the Links?


    What's It All About?

    In this gripping episode, Lee Crompton shares his extraordinary journey of being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of thyroid cancer. From the initial shock of a terminal diagnosis to unexpectedly surviving beyond the predicted timeframe, Lee's story is a rollercoaster of emotions, filled with dark humor and profound insights. You'll hear about his struggles with mental health, the devastating impact on his family, and the unique challenges of living with a "borrowed time" mentality as a husband and father. Lee candidly discusses the mental toll of facing mortality while trying to be present for his wife and young children, offering a raw and honest look at the complexities of family life in the shadow of a terminal diagnosis.

    Some Key Takeaways:

    • Discover how humor can be a powerful coping mechanism in the face of life-threatening illness, even when dealing with family responsibilities

    • Gain insight into the complex emotions and mental health challenges that come with surviving a terminal diagnosis, particularly as a parent

    • Learn about the importance of community and sharing experiences in navigating life's toughest challenges, especially when balancing family life with personal health crises

    Press PLAY on today’s episode to hear Lee's incredible story of resilience, humor, and hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, and how it has shaped his perspective as a husband and father.

    Today's Featured Guest

    Lee Crompton is a cancer survivor, mental health advocate, and host of the Mind Cake podcast. Diagnosed with anaplastic thyroid cancer in 2020, Lee has defied the odds and uses his experience to help others navigate their own mental health journeys. With a unique blend of humor and honesty, Lee shares his story to inspire and support those facing life's toughest challenges, particularly focusing on the impact of serious illness on family dynamics and parental responsibilities.

    Remember, no matter what you are going through, you are never alone. Reach out to your podcast host, Kevin Lowe, or to today's spectacular guest, Lee Compton.


    Hey, it's Kevin!


    I hope you enjoyed today's episode! If there is ever anything I can do for you, please don't hesitate to reach out. Below, you will find ALL the places and ALL the ways to connect!




    Stay Awesome! Live Inspired!

    © 2024 Grit, Grace, & Inspiration

    Show Transcript

    Kevin Lowe

    Today, I'm gonna introduce you to somebody who was face to face with his own mortality.


    Kevin Lowe

    It was 2020 height of the pandemic in Lee Crompton.


    Kevin Lowe

    He was diagnosed with terminal cancer.


    Kevin Lowe

    They said that he had at most six months to live.


    Kevin Lowe

    This meant that he wouldn't even get to see his child's first birthday.


    Kevin Lowe

    Now, let me flip the script, because that all sounds really sad, and it is.


    Kevin Lowe

    But then you meet Lee Crompton.


    Kevin Lowe

    Lee has a sense of humor on a dark subject that I have never heard before.


    Kevin Lowe

    I have never laughed in an interview as much as I did in this one.


    Kevin Lowe

    I was not expecting it whatsoever.


    Kevin Lowe

    And that's what makes today's episode so amazing.


    Kevin Lowe

    So, my friend, if you could use a laugh, if you could be reminded about how precious life is, all with this amazing sense of humor brought to us by Lee Crompton.


    Kevin Lowe

    Well, my friend, you just found your place to be.


    Kevin Lowe

    I welcome you to what is episode 349.


    Kevin Lowe

    I hope you enjoy.


    Lee Crompton

    Yo, are you ready to flip the script on life?


    Lee Crompton

    Cause those bad days, they're just doors to better days.


    Lee Crompton

    And that's exactly what we do here at Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.


    Lee Crompton

    Your host, Kevin Lowe, he's been flipping the script on his own life, turning over 20 years of being completely blind into to straight up inspiration, motivation, and encouragement just for you.


    Lee Crompton

    So kick back, relax, and let me introduce you to your host, Kevin Lowe.


    Kevin Lowe

    Welcome back to the podcast.


    Kevin Lowe

    This is, of course, your host, Kevin Lowe, and today I have the pleasure of being in the studio with none other than Lee Crompton.


    Kevin Lowe

    Lee, welcome to the podcast, man.


    Lee Crompton

    Thank you very much for having me, Kevin.


    Lee Crompton

    It's been.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah, it's been a while, but thoroughly looking forward to this.


    Kevin Lowe

    Absolutely.


    Kevin Lowe

    Me too, man.


    Kevin Lowe

    Well, I figured the best place for us to start today is I would love for you to kind of give me a snapshot look at life before the diagnosis.


    Kevin Lowe

    Obviously, that's a big part of our conversation today.


    Kevin Lowe

    But before any of that came up, what was life looking like for you?


    Lee Crompton

    To put it into context, it was September 2020 when I was diagnosed.


    Lee Crompton

    So life before that, starting from sort of the beginning of 2020, my youngest daughter was born in the January of 2020.


    Lee Crompton

    Then we went down, in we went.


    Lee Crompton

    So that was good.


    Lee Crompton

    That's a positive.


    Lee Crompton

    Although we were starting to get stories of this mysterious disease that was sweeping the world.


    Lee Crompton

    And then in, I think it was the March, we went into lockdown.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yes.


    Lee Crompton

    So family life changed.


    Lee Crompton

    From newborn baby in January to all living under the same roof.


    Lee Crompton

    Nobody was going to Nursery.


    Lee Crompton

    Nobody was going to school.


    Lee Crompton

    My wife was on maternity leave.


    Lee Crompton

    I was working from home.


    Lee Crompton

    And, yeah, it was.


    Lee Crompton

    We were all.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah, like very many other families, living under.


    Lee Crompton

    Living on top of each other and not being able to go anywhere.


    Kevin Lowe

    Exactly.


    Kevin Lowe

    Such.


    Kevin Lowe

    Such memorable times, huh?


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah.


    Lee Crompton

    It seems weird now.


    Kevin Lowe

    It is.


    Lee Crompton

    Just looking back on that and going, well, that was, you know, because I go to.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm a Bournemouth fan, so I follow the football or soccer, as you would.


    Lee Crompton

    As you would say.


    Lee Crompton

    And it just seems weird going to a stadium and thinking there was a time when all of this was played behind closed doors.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yes, absolutely.


    Lee Crompton

    And that was the world we lived in.


    Kevin Lowe

    Exactly.


    Kevin Lowe

    And what's crazy is that, I mean, it seems like in a way, that was a really long time ago and it really wasn't.


    Lee Crompton

    It does, yeah.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah.


    Kevin Lowe

    Well, so kind of into the context of our real conversation today, I guess my next question would be, during this time, what would first alert you that maybe something wasn't quite right with you, with your body?


    Lee Crompton

    Well, I always thought I had raised glands.


    Lee Crompton

    I always seemed to have a swollen neck, and I'd always blamed it on the kids.


    Lee Crompton

    So, yeah, to put it into concert.


    Lee Crompton

    I had a newborn baby and my eldest was three at the time, so they were always coming home from nursery with snotty noses and what have you.


    Lee Crompton

    So I blamed it on them.


    Lee Crompton

    Unfortunately, that.


    Lee Crompton

    That was why I was always a bit, kind of raised glands and a bit bunged up or what have you.


    Lee Crompton

    And then, of course, like I said, we went into lockdown and nobody was going anywhere.


    Lee Crompton

    We weren't seeing anybody.


    Lee Crompton

    And I thought, why does my neck still feel sort of puffy?


    Lee Crompton

    Went to the doctors, which was difficult because you couldn't really see the doctor in those days because nobody wanted to go and venture out, particularly not to medical facilities.


    Lee Crompton

    And so, anyway, long story short, they took a biopsy of this lump or puffiness, which came back inconclusive.


    Lee Crompton

    Took an ultrasound, they said, yeah, it looks.


    Lee Crompton

    Looks okay.


    Lee Crompton

    You have got a lump there, but it looks as though it's not a problem.


    Lee Crompton

    What do you want to do?


    Lee Crompton

    And they said, well, you got your options.


    Lee Crompton

    I said, what are my options?


    Lee Crompton

    The options are we could leave it and just keep an eye on it because it looks okay.


    Lee Crompton

    We could take another biopsy.


    Lee Crompton

    Although if this one's come back inconclusive, the chances are the other one will come back inconclusive.


    Lee Crompton

    Or we could go straight to surgery.


    Lee Crompton

    And I was okay.


    Lee Crompton

    For a man who often will check with his wife what flavor of pizza she wants from the corner Shop, just to double check.


    Lee Crompton

    For whatever reason, I decided to say, well, I'll just get a surgery.


    Lee Crompton

    And he said, are you sure that he's a bit drastic?


    Lee Crompton

    And I suppose surely, because I think at that point they measured, it was like 7cm long, if you imagine, up the way, in my throat, in my neck.


    Kevin Lowe

    Okay.


    Lee Crompton

    And I said, well, surely it's only going to get bigger, isn't it?


    Lee Crompton

    And they said, well, probably, yeah.


    Lee Crompton

    I said, well, let's just take it out then, because, you know, it's going to be more of a pain to get out at a later date.


    Lee Crompton

    And they went, well, if you're sure.


    Lee Crompton

    And Covid, at that time, nobody was going to hospital.


    Lee Crompton

    So they said we could get you in quite quickly because no one wants to go to hospital.


    Lee Crompton

    And that's probably what saved me.


    Lee Crompton

    So went and had the first operation.


    Lee Crompton

    And I won't lie, Kevin, it was other than obviously having my throat slit.


    Lee Crompton

    It was quite pleasurable at the time at home.


    Lee Crompton

    I wasn't, you know, we couldn't go anywhere.


    Lee Crompton

    We were sort of going stir crazy.


    Lee Crompton

    The kids weren't sleeping.


    Lee Crompton

    We weren't getting a full night's sleep because we had a newborn baby.


    Lee Crompton

    And actually going into hospital and lying in the bed in the peace and quiet and having someone bring your food to your bed and just eating it there and listening to podcasts and watching the television was actually quite nice.


    Lee Crompton

    Other than the.


    Lee Crompton

    Other than the stitches, have you, have you ever seen the film Highlander?


    Kevin Lowe

    No, I haven't, no.


    Lee Crompton

    Well, for those who have seen the film the Highlander, there's the Kurgan and he's got like his neck stapled together with safety pins.


    Lee Crompton

    And that was kind of what I was.


    Lee Crompton

    But other than that, you know, the pudding was very nice and whatever, and the guy.


    Lee Crompton

    So I had the operation and the doctor came around, surgeon came around and he said, yep.


    Lee Crompton

    He says it was.


    Lee Crompton

    Excuse my French.


    Lee Crompton

    He said it was a big bugger.


    Lee Crompton

    He said it was 7 centimeters long.


    Lee Crompton

    He said, but I've had it in the palm of my hand and there's a few dense bits we probably need to look under the microscope, but nothing to worry about.


    Lee Crompton

    Okay, fine.


    Lee Crompton

    So I went home to recuperate.


    Lee Crompton

    And I mean, I'm making light of this, but it was a fairly big operation when you have in your.


    Lee Crompton

    You know.


    Lee Crompton

    And that was that.


    Lee Crompton

    We'll be in touch.


    Lee Crompton

    And three weeks went by and I got a phone call.


    Lee Crompton

    Can you come in for the results?


    Lee Crompton

    Which in hindsight I should have realized was an oddity because they didn't really want you going to hospital unless it was absolutely necessary.


    Lee Crompton

    And the hospital that I had the operation in was about 45 minutes from here.


    Lee Crompton

    So my wife said, would you want me to come as well?


    Lee Crompton

    And I said, no.


    Lee Crompton

    I said, absolutely pointless.


    Lee Crompton

    I said, one, we've got to get the two kids in their car seats and over to the hospital, which is just going to be a pain.


    Lee Crompton

    Two, they probably won't let you in anyway because you weren't allowed to go in with anybody.


    Lee Crompton

    And three, if it had been because my dad unfortunately passed away when he was in his mid-50s with bowel cancer and when he had his diagnosis or when he had his test, they were straight back the following day.


    Lee Crompton

    You need to come in, it's been three weeks.


    Lee Crompton

    I said, if there's anything serious, they would have let me know by now.


    Lee Crompton

    So I went into the lion's den on my Todd and yeah, I knew as soon as I walked into this room that something was up.


    Lee Crompton

    There was that you just tell by the body language and the doer look on there as a good Scottish word, a doer, the doer expression on their faces.


    Lee Crompton

    And there was a middle aged woman and I'm thinking, why is she here?


    Lee Crompton

    Because she doesn't look like a student nurse and it turns out she's the macmillan.


    Lee Crompton

    So over here, macmillan is the cancer charity.


    Lee Crompton

    And yeah, I just remember, I don't remember much of that conversation other than him saying, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.


    Lee Crompton

    And he kept shaking his head and said, you've got a young family, haven't you?


    Lee Crompton

    I was like, yeah, yeah, sorry, what's happened?


    Lee Crompton

    So at that point they didn't give me time scales, but they said, yeah, you've got anaplastic thyroid cancer.


    Lee Crompton

    Here's a leaflet, here's a booklet.


    Lee Crompton

    There's nothing about anaplastic.


    Lee Crompton

    It's so rare what you've got that there's no.


    Lee Crompton

    I don't know why I'm laughing.


    Lee Crompton

    It's so rare that what you've got that there's no information about it in there.


    Lee Crompton

    There's three main types of thyroid cancer which if you get that, they're quite curable.


    Lee Crompton

    I think there's a 90% success rate other than what I had, which was anaplastic thyroid cancer, which in the UK there's about 70 cases a year.


    Lee Crompton

    It's really rare, it's really aggressive.


    Lee Crompton

    At that point they didn't give me time scales, but yeah, Glasgow.


    Lee Crompton

    So I live near Loch Lomond.


    Lee Crompton

    I think we mentioned before when I Was chatting to you before.


    Lee Crompton

    And so, yeah, Glasgow's the nearest sort of main hospital.


    Lee Crompton

    They'll be in touch.


    Lee Crompton

    And that was that.


    Lee Crompton

    So I went, we'll do a CT scan now.


    Lee Crompton

    So I'm waiting.


    Lee Crompton

    You couldn't get a signal in the hospital.


    Lee Crompton

    So I'm waiting, thinking, Gemma, as my wife, Gemma is going to know something is up.


    Lee Crompton

    Because I was in for the 9 o'clock appointment in the morning, thinking, I'm going to go in.


    Lee Crompton

    They're going to go, yeah, absolutely fine, thank you very much, go away.


    Lee Crompton

    And I'm going to be back in the car.


    Lee Crompton

    Back in the car, up for 10 past nine and home for sort of 10 o'clock.


    Lee Crompton

    Well, it's now 10 o'clock and I'm waiting to have a CT scan and I can't.


    Lee Crompton

    I haven't contacted her.


    Lee Crompton

    I thought, she's going to know, she's going to know.


    Lee Crompton

    So, yeah, I ended up having to ring her from the car park.


    Lee Crompton

    And my mom, who's down in dorset, she lives 450 miles away, and say, this isn't good news.


    Lee Crompton

    And I knew it was bad, but I didn't really know how bad because they said, well, you know, Glasgow, be in touch.


    Lee Crompton

    And.


    Lee Crompton

    And that was where it was kind of left.


    Lee Crompton

    Have a CT scan and await further instruction.


    Kevin Lowe

    Wow.


    Kevin Lowe

    How fast life can change, you know?


    Kevin Lowe

    Wow.


    Kevin Lowe

    So talk to me.


    Kevin Lowe

    I guess I'm curious to know, I mean, what happens next?


    Lee Crompton

    Well, yeah, I got the phone call the next day, you need to come in this afternoon to Glasgow.


    Lee Crompton

    And I remember we were.


    Lee Crompton

    I think we were taking the kids out.


    Lee Crompton

    I think you were allowed in the park in those days for half an hour.


    Lee Crompton

    So we got the phone call, can you come in this afternoon?


    Lee Crompton

    And they gave me the results of the CT scan and they said, look again.


    Lee Crompton

    Very grave faces.


    Lee Crompton

    The CT scans come back clear.


    Lee Crompton

    Oh, that's.


    Lee Crompton

    That's good use, isn't it?


    Lee Crompton

    And they went, no, not really.


    Lee Crompton

    And I didn't realize that a CT scan, I think, again, don't quote me on this, but a CT scan can only pick up things bigger than 2 millimeters, I think.


    Kevin Lowe

    Okay.


    Lee Crompton

    And they said it's evidence that it's been trying to get into your bloodstream.


    Lee Crompton

    So we predict that you're riddled with it already.


    Lee Crompton

    It's.


    Lee Crompton

    It's.


    Lee Crompton

    You've got.


    Lee Crompton

    And you've got four to six months.


    Lee Crompton

    Six months.


    Lee Crompton

    The exact words were, six months would be a positive outcome.


    Lee Crompton

    And I remember looking at my wife's eyes because again, we're.


    Lee Crompton

    We're wearing.


    Lee Crompton

    We're all wearing face masks and just the sort of terror, the dread in her eyes.


    Lee Crompton

    And then they said, look, we need to get you in for this operation.


    Lee Crompton

    And yeah, you're going to have to have a COVID test.


    Lee Crompton

    But quite frankly, it doesn't matter if you've got Covid.


    Lee Crompton

    I'll just have to get my team to take extra precautions because you need to come in on Monday and we need to get this operation done.


    Lee Crompton

    And I'm saying, well, that's right.


    Lee Crompton

    Okay, so there is a chance that I could be, you know, for want of a better expression, cured.


    Lee Crompton

    And they said, no, no.


    Lee Crompton

    What happens with this?


    Lee Crompton

    Like I say, it's like wildfire.


    Lee Crompton

    And it.


    Lee Crompton

    And it.


    Lee Crompton

    It develops very quickly.


    Lee Crompton

    And so the first operation was to take out the one side of my thyroid that had this lump on.


    Lee Crompton

    So I still had the other side of my thyroid at that point in still in my neck.


    Lee Crompton

    And what they said was, it because it expands so rapidly, that could impact on your breathing, it could impact on your swallowing, and it makes the end pretty nasty.


    Lee Crompton

    So, yeah, that second operation was not to save me, but just to make the end less grim, which is, again, mentally, that's quite a leap to go.


    Lee Crompton

    Right, okay.


    Lee Crompton

    Cause I'm having literally the same operation and it wasn't quite as.


    Lee Crompton

    Like I say, the first time I was like, I was just quite nice to have a couple nights away from the kids and a decent night sleep.


    Lee Crompton

    The second operation, three weeks later, yeah, wasn't quite as.


    Lee Crompton

    I wasn't looking forward to it as much.


    Lee Crompton

    Not that I was looking forward to the first one, but you know what I mean, I'm not trying to.


    Lee Crompton

    Like I say, I'm trying to make light of it as best I can.


    Lee Crompton

    But.


    Lee Crompton

    So, yeah, that was.


    Lee Crompton

    That was the second operation I had.


    Lee Crompton

    And it was.


    Lee Crompton

    It was awful because I was in a different hospital, which is much busier.


    Lee Crompton

    You're on the 12th floor.


    Lee Crompton

    Things didn't go because obviously they go in the same scar, literally, that they've just been in three weeks ago.


    Lee Crompton

    So the first one hadn't really healed properly.


    Lee Crompton

    So there was.


    Lee Crompton

    I mean, that felt like I've got sort of.


    Lee Crompton

    Well, first of all, you go into an operation that, you know is not going to save you.


    Lee Crompton

    Second of all, it was more painful.


    Lee Crompton

    I found it really.


    Lee Crompton

    You had like blood clots on the chest where they're going in again.


    Lee Crompton

    And it was like, say, swallowing barbed wire.


    Lee Crompton

    And it wasn't as plain sailing as the first one.


    Lee Crompton

    So, of course, I've only got.


    Lee Crompton

    That's my benchmark so I'm now going, well, something's gone wrong.


    Lee Crompton

    And of course I'm on high alert anyway.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm very, very anxious.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm very, very agitated because I've been told you've got four to six months to live.


    Lee Crompton

    So, like I say, when I was told that, I thought, right, well, I probably might get to see Erin's first birthday in January, but I'm probably not going to get to see Izzy's fourth birthday in March.


    Lee Crompton

    And that was just heartbreaking.


    Lee Crompton

    But went in for the second operation and, yeah, it was just.


    Lee Crompton

    It was awful.


    Lee Crompton

    And I remember I write scripts, Kevin.


    Lee Crompton

    I don't know if I mentioned that before, but, yeah, I work in construction, but I write.


    Lee Crompton

    I write TV scripts and dark comedies.


    Lee Crompton

    And this is definitely going.


    Lee Crompton

    This moment is definitely going in there somewhere.


    Lee Crompton

    Well, two moments, actually.


    Lee Crompton

    I'll tell you.


    Lee Crompton

    I'll tell you two moments, because I've actually.


    Lee Crompton

    I was actually at the hospital this morning, which we'll come on to, but the guy comes around, the nurse comes around with the clipboard and says, right, Mr.


    Lee Crompton

    Crumpton, could you tell me on a scale of naught to 10, what your pain is?


    Lee Crompton

    He said, naught being, like, no pain at all, and 10 being excruciating.


    Lee Crompton

    And I'm there.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm in the depths of despair.


    Lee Crompton

    I've been told I've got, like, months to live.


    Lee Crompton

    I feel awful.


    Lee Crompton

    Like I said, I can't swallow properly.


    Lee Crompton

    Every time I, like, cough or whatever, it's convulsions, and I'm like, I really don't feel very well at all.


    Lee Crompton

    I don't know, I think I'm probably.


    Lee Crompton

    Probably at least a seven.


    Lee Crompton

    And he looks me up and down.


    Lee Crompton

    I went, I'll put you down as a three.


    Lee Crompton

    I walked off.


    Lee Crompton

    So, yeah, there's looking back, and at the time, I'm mortified because I'm thinking, I'm making a big fuss here.


    Lee Crompton

    So I didn't ring that all, you know, that you have to ring the bell at night if you want anyone to come to your aid or, you know, plump your pillows up or just get you a glass of water, whatever.


    Lee Crompton

    I didn't touch it because I'm like, I'm obviously making too much of a fuss and I don't want to be a burden on anybody.


    Lee Crompton

    So I lay there, like, just going, well, you know, if I don't wake up in the morning, so be it.


    Lee Crompton

    I'll go off on Miss Sleep.


    Lee Crompton

    And, you know.


    Lee Crompton

    And it's a reminder of another story this morning, which is.


    Lee Crompton

    So I When we were chatting earlier, it was four years yesterday, so spoiler alert, yes, I'm still here.


    Lee Crompton

    Four years later, I'm still, I'm still here.


    Lee Crompton

    And I went for my oncology appointment this morning at the same hospital that where I first was, was diagnosed, told the timescales and it reminds me and have a little wry, little smile to myself now, as does my wife when she comes with me in that, that first morning that when they said, you're going to Glasgow in the morning and we got the phone call to go in.


    Lee Crompton

    We arrived at the hospital with our face masks on, didn't know where we were going.


    Lee Crompton

    It was a new hospital to us.


    Lee Crompton

    So we wandered in.


    Lee Crompton

    Obviously we've been punched in the gut with the news that I'm going to die quite soon.


    Lee Crompton

    And we're wandering around and there's a guy because again, we're in the depths of COVID There's a guy at like a fold away table at the entrance with all the hand gel on and you gotta squirt your hands before you go in and blah, blah, blah.


    Lee Crompton

    And he can see that we're kind of like a bit discombobulated and don't know what we're doing.


    Lee Crompton

    And he says, he looks at my wife up and down and says, oh, can I help you?


    Lee Crompton

    Are you looking for the maternity ward?


    Lee Crompton

    And I'm like, no, no, we're looking for ear, nose and throat.


    Lee Crompton

    Ent.


    Lee Crompton

    And he went, oh, I'm ever so sorry.


    Lee Crompton

    So, yeah, I mean, talk about kicking people when they're down.


    Lee Crompton

    Not only, as you've been told, your husband's not got long to live, but then one of the porters says that he could probably do with losing a few pounds as well.


    Lee Crompton

    So admittedly she had not long had Erin.


    Lee Crompton

    But yeah, it was that moment of, no, no, we're not here for the pregnancy.


    Lee Crompton

    Maternity ward.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah, so, yeah, so that was the second.


    Lee Crompton

    Sorry, going back, I'm flipping between timescales here.


    Lee Crompton

    Had the second operation, came out and was recovering from that and I remember I went to see Professor Reid and he said, I think we might have been a bit overly cautious about these timescales.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm like, okay.


    Lee Crompton

    I mean, I think six months is probably a bit pessimistic.


    Lee Crompton

    Okay, good, yeah.


    Lee Crompton

    What are you telling me?


    Lee Crompton

    I think it's probably going to be 12 months.


    Lee Crompton

    And I remember coming out of there, punching the air like I just won the lottery because I'm like, this is amazing.


    Lee Crompton

    I get to see another, you know, my daughter's grow up for another Six months and run a punch in the air.


    Lee Crompton

    And it was only like a couple of days later I went, hang on a minute, the guy's still telling me I've got 12 months to live.


    Lee Crompton

    That's rubbish.


    Lee Crompton

    But it was twice as long as I thought I was going to get.


    Lee Crompton

    So, you know, it's moments like that when you go, that's just.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah, I was buzzing that he told me I've got 12 months to live.


    Lee Crompton

    Which is just bizarre.


    Kevin Lowe

    Wow.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah, the whole thing is bizarre.


    Kevin Lowe

    The whole thing is truly.


    Kevin Lowe

    And I guess the question that I wanna ask is we obviously know how this whole thing starts.


    Lee Crompton

    We see where you are, I've given away the ending.


    Kevin Lowe

    No, no, no, no, it's fine.


    Kevin Lowe

    It's totally fine.


    Kevin Lowe

    Because obviously anybody's like, wait, the math doesn't add up here.


    Kevin Lowe

    The guy's talking to us.


    Kevin Lowe

    But so I guess the question I am so anxious to find out is after all the hospital stuff is over with and you go back home, whether it was six months or a year, how do you even mentally handle that and even just keep living life?


    Lee Crompton

    It's difficult because I kept going to obviously oncology appointments every.


    Lee Crompton

    It was every month to start with, then every three months and now it's every six months.


    Lee Crompton

    But I should say that, you know, anaplastic thyroid cancer is, I think got.


    Lee Crompton

    95% of people are dead within 12 months.


    Lee Crompton

    I think there's a handful of people that are lasting three to five years, but they're on cutting edge drugs.


    Lee Crompton

    And I remember them saying at the time, do not Google anything to do with anaplastic thyroid cancer.


    Lee Crompton

    Because there is nothing.


    Lee Crompton

    You won't find anything good to talk about, you know, to read, rather there's no good news.


    Lee Crompton

    But no, you're right.


    Lee Crompton

    When you.


    Lee Crompton

    So you come out of that and you're always kind of looking over your shoulder because you've survived six months and go, right, well, that's the six months.


    Lee Crompton

    Are we good?


    Lee Crompton

    Well, I mean, we'll wait till 12 months.


    Lee Crompton

    And when it got to 12 months, I mean, if we could get to 18 months and he still said the same to me today, I mean, if we can get to five years seems to be like the benchmark.


    Lee Crompton

    So I've kind of given up because they just keep kicking the can down the road.


    Lee Crompton

    But I would say for the first, it's difficult on a couple of levels because when you've got to six months or 12 months and it looks like there's a chance that you might have dodged a bullet, everybody wants to know you Know the good luck story.


    Lee Crompton

    They, they don't necessarily want to talk to you when you're.


    Lee Crompton

    Or make eye contact.


    Lee Crompton

    It was almost like being a homeless person on the street.


    Lee Crompton

    No one really wants to take.


    Lee Crompton

    Make eye contact with you because what do you say to the.


    Lee Crompton

    What do you say to the guy who's been given sort of four months to live?


    Lee Crompton

    You're right.


    Lee Crompton

    No, not really.


    Lee Crompton

    No, I've been given months to live.


    Lee Crompton

    So nobody kind of engages with you, but the minute it looks like you might be okay, people are going, it must be great.


    Lee Crompton

    Must be great news that you've dodged this bullet.


    Lee Crompton

    And they're happy to not talk about it.


    Lee Crompton

    But you can change the subject.


    Lee Crompton

    They can deal with that because people don't want to talk about the rubbish stuff.


    Lee Crompton

    I was going to swear then, but I stopped myself.


    Lee Crompton

    Kevin, so you've got people who've gone, oh, that's right, yeah, you've.


    Lee Crompton

    You've turned a corner.


    Lee Crompton

    And because they want to parcel it up in that sort of palatable scenario, if you like.


    Lee Crompton

    Whereas.


    Lee Crompton

    And it is, I mean, that you're.


    Lee Crompton

    There's, there's a, there's a difficult paradox in that.


    Lee Crompton

    Obviously I'm happy that I'm still here, but I'm always kind of got one eye looking over my shoulder in terms of what am I really okay?


    Lee Crompton

    Or is this going to come back and bite me on the bum?


    Lee Crompton

    Or.


    Lee Crompton

    And then there's the whole feeling guilty because I should be punching the air.


    Lee Crompton

    And there's.


    Lee Crompton

    Again, it goes into mental health.


    Lee Crompton

    But whether you say you should be doing something and you could be doing something or whatever, you know, the voices that you tell yourself.


    Lee Crompton

    So I should be punching the air because this is what you wanted, right?


    Lee Crompton

    You wanted to see your kids grow up and you wanted that bit of extra time.


    Lee Crompton

    But the reality is for someone to tell me, and I think I mentioned this before when I was in it, I almost had like a.


    Lee Crompton

    I had these lists of tasks I needed to do, so I needed to make sure that the boiler was fixed.


    Lee Crompton

    I needed to make sure I had, you know, I gave my wife powers of attorney.


    Lee Crompton

    We've set up wills, we've set up, you know, Christmas presents and birthday presents for the kids for the next 10 years or the, you know, the years that I'm not going to be there to do them myself.


    Lee Crompton

    And all this kind of practical stuff, which again, is a whole, that's a whole conversation itself, is, you know, me and my wife went through ivf.


    Lee Crompton

    We're going off various tangents.


    Lee Crompton

    Kevin.


    Lee Crompton

    I Do apologize.


    Lee Crompton

    But me and my wife have had IVF treatment, which I thought was a very galvanizing process because you're aiming towards the same goal and you're in it together.


    Lee Crompton

    Whereas I found that cancer was actually very divisive.


    Lee Crompton

    Because I'm thinking, right, what do I need to do in the next six months to make sure that, you know, my family provided for and as much as, as much as I humanly possibly can, that things are dealt with?


    Lee Crompton

    And from my wife's perspective, she's like, what on earth am I going to do in six months time in terms of paying the mortgage and being a single parent with two kids who want their dad?


    Lee Crompton

    And so she's kind of thinking about the aftermath.


    Lee Crompton

    And I'm going, well, no, no, what about the here and now?


    Lee Crompton

    We need to get XYZ done before I pop the clogs.


    Lee Crompton

    And it's strange that we'll come onto the podcast that I do, but it'd be interesting to get her taken and do an episode with.


    Lee Crompton

    With her in terms of the other side of the fence.


    Lee Crompton

    Because ultimately.


    Lee Crompton

    Yes, sorry, coming back to your original question, yes, it's great that I dodged the bullet, but ultimately you're saying, oh, that thing.


    Lee Crompton

    Yes.


    Lee Crompton

    I know you've looked inside Pandora's box and sort of been faced with your own mortality, but if you wouldn't mind just shutting the lid and if you could go back to work on Monday morning and just pretend none of that happened, that would be great.


    Lee Crompton

    And it's impossible to do that.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah, you know, it's very difficult to just switch that off and go, oh, well, great, I've dodged that bullet.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm going to live every moment like it's my last.


    Lee Crompton

    And I know there are people who, you know, have had these, you know, life changing experiences and have turned it into a positive.


    Lee Crompton

    And I found that really difficult to do because, you know, and there's the guilt of, well, but you've done the thing that you wanted to do.


    Lee Crompton

    You, you know, but the Girls are now 4 and 7.


    Lee Crompton

    But at the same time.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah.


    Lee Crompton

    That.


    Lee Crompton

    The psychology of mentally preparing for your own demise and then not demising, I don't know if demising is even a word, but I've used it now, so it's fine.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah, it's.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah, it's.


    Lee Crompton

    It's odd, I think, is the best way I can describe it.


    Lee Crompton

    And there's certain things, just while I remember this thing, there's certain things that.


    Lee Crompton

    So, so my birthday's in December, so when I had my.


    Lee Crompton

    Which I think.


    Lee Crompton

    Forget now.


    Lee Crompton

    I think it would have been my 47th birthday.


    Lee Crompton

    I thought, this is gonna be.


    Lee Crompton

    This is gonna be a killer because I'm gonna be.


    Lee Crompton

    This is gonna be my last birthday I'll ever going to have.


    Lee Crompton

    And actually, it was fine.


    Lee Crompton

    Mentally, I mean.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah.


    Lee Crompton

    And then.


    Lee Crompton

    Jesus, Christmas, Christmas with the kids.


    Lee Crompton

    This is going to be a toughie.


    Lee Crompton

    And again, yes, it was difficult and yes, it was emotional at times, but it wasn't as bad as I kind of envisaged.


    Lee Crompton

    What really got me was putting the Christmas decorations back in the loft and thinking, I wonder who's going to get them down next year?


    Lee Crompton

    Because ain't going to be me.


    Lee Crompton

    So I just chucked him up any old house and thought, ha, ha, somebody else's problem next year.


    Lee Crompton

    But I didn't do that.


    Lee Crompton

    But it's things that creep up on you that I think that, you know, the mind is a very kind of weird and wonderful creation where, you know, you can't really predict what's going to be triggering and what's.


    Lee Crompton

    What's not.


    Lee Crompton

    But.


    Lee Crompton

    No, just to.


    Lee Crompton

    Just to go work.


    Lee Crompton

    Just to go back to work and pretend that everything's normal is.


    Lee Crompton

    Is not.


    Lee Crompton

    Is not easy.


    Kevin Lowe

    No.


    Kevin Lowe

    And I mean, obviously I know where we are today.


    Kevin Lowe

    You're still here.


    Kevin Lowe

    And yet when you share this story, I can't help but want to cry myself.


    Lee Crompton

    Really, I'm sorry about that, but.


    Kevin Lowe

    No, I mean, it's the honest truth.


    Kevin Lowe

    When I listen to you and I think of the heartache of your wife, of you at times, this idea.


    Kevin Lowe

    I mean, none of us want to think about when we're not here.


    Kevin Lowe

    Especially when it's the idea of leaving our family and the fact that we're not supposed to know when we're.


    Kevin Lowe

    When we're gonna die.


    Kevin Lowe

    That's something that we're not supposed to know.


    Kevin Lowe

    And yet you were somebody who.


    Kevin Lowe

    You were given that timetable.


    Lee Crompton

    I think there's.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah, I think there's two things there.


    Lee Crompton

    So you.


    Lee Crompton

    Yes, I was given that timetable.


    Lee Crompton

    But I don't think we all.


    Lee Crompton

    None of us think we're gonna die.


    Lee Crompton

    None of us are gonna die.


    Lee Crompton

    Right.


    Lee Crompton

    It's always somebody else who's gonna get the cancer.


    Lee Crompton

    You know, it's always somebody else who's gonna get hit by a car.


    Lee Crompton

    It's always somebody else who's gonna go blind.


    Lee Crompton

    It's not.


    Lee Crompton

    It' be me, is it?


    Lee Crompton

    Especially not at 47, because we don't.


    Lee Crompton

    We don't talk about that.


    Lee Crompton

    We don't talk about our own mortality because it's awful.


    Lee Crompton

    Why Would you want to think about that?


    Lee Crompton

    And I think it's a very difficult concept to get your head around.


    Lee Crompton

    So I know we know we're all going to die, but until somebody, you know, turns around and tells you, oh, by the way, do you know what you've got?


    Lee Crompton

    You've got till probably just after Christmas and you go, sorry, what?


    Lee Crompton

    We don't talk about it because it's people who go, oh, I can't imagine what you're going through.


    Lee Crompton

    Well, you can, you can imagine that if you like, you are doing it now.


    Lee Crompton

    You can imagine it.


    Lee Crompton

    But we all choose not to.


    Lee Crompton

    And of course we choose not to.


    Lee Crompton

    Why would you want to imagine that?


    Lee Crompton

    It's awful.


    Kevin Lowe

    Exactly.


    Lee Crompton

    And that's the thing.


    Lee Crompton

    When I was diagnosed, the thing that, you know, no disrespect to my wife, but it was the fact that we've gone through IVF to have the kids and then I wasn't going to go, I know.


    Lee Crompton

    And I invented this whole.


    Lee Crompton

    I hope she doesn't mind me saying, I invented this whole person, Brian, who was gonna, you know, my kids.


    Lee Crompton

    I don't remember anything from when I was four, let alone one.


    Lee Crompton

    My wife was only 40 at the time, you know, still very young.


    Lee Crompton

    She's probably going to meet someone else and he's probably going to be called Brian.


    Lee Crompton

    He's probably never going to.


    Lee Crompton

    Done a whole day's, you know, a day's work in his life and he's going to come into my house and they might even call him dad.


    Lee Crompton

    And they're not, he's not their dad.


    Lee Crompton

    And I kind of invented this whole future of the kids.


    Lee Crompton

    Not know, well, who's that bloke, you know, in a photograph?


    Lee Crompton

    Oh, he was your dad or was he?


    Lee Crompton

    No recollection of him whatsoever.


    Lee Crompton

    And that was just gut wrenching, absolutely gut wrenching.


    Lee Crompton

    And again, there's, you know, the juxtaposition of that is, you know, now when you're late for the play park, will you just get your shoes on, love of God, please just let me do the zip on your coat or whatever.


    Lee Crompton

    Don't throw spaghetti at the wall, whatever it might be.


    Lee Crompton

    Which is a constant battle.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yes.


    Lee Crompton

    And you kind of have to just remind yourself, hang on a minute, this is what you wanted.


    Lee Crompton

    You wanted to see the spaghetti thrown at the pool and the socks being thrown off in a tantrum or whatever it might be.


    Lee Crompton

    So there is that.


    Lee Crompton

    It's a weird relationship between gratefulness and guilt and anger and confusion.


    Lee Crompton

    And I think I'm slowly starting to come out the other side.


    Lee Crompton

    But it's been a long process, of course.


    Kevin Lowe

    What do the doctors say?


    Lee Crompton

    Not a lot, no.


    Lee Crompton

    Like I say, I was there today and they keep saying that just it was luck.


    Lee Crompton

    So what they think the only explanation they can give me and sorry.


    Lee Crompton

    So going back, I was just jumping around all over the place.


    Lee Crompton

    So the reason apparently that it took them three weeks to get me the results was that the results came back anaplastic thyroid cancer.


    Lee Crompton

    And they said it can't be anaplastic thyroid cancer because one is very, very rare and two, it mainly affects women over 60.


    Lee Crompton

    I don't tick either of those boxes, as I hope you've already appreciated.


    Lee Crompton

    So it went all around the houses to all these world experts to get a double checked and triple checked until they said it is, it's anaplastic thyroid cancer.


    Lee Crompton

    And the only explanation they can give me.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah, so what he said to me this morning was that it was 33% anaplastic and 66%, I'm going to say, normal in a very common normal thyroid cancer.


    Lee Crompton

    And the only explanation they can give me is that the 66% was encapsulating the 33%.


    Lee Crompton

    And if it had been another couple of months, then he said we wouldn't be sat here today having this conversation.


    Lee Crompton

    Just pure luck.


    Lee Crompton

    So he reckons.


    Lee Crompton

    He said you could have had thyroid like normal thyroid.


    Lee Crompton

    Again, I'm using inverted commas, normal thyroid cancer because it's a very slow burner.


    Lee Crompton

    He said you could have had normal thyroid cancer for years and not known it.


    Lee Crompton

    And it was just his anaplastic bit.


    Lee Crompton

    It was ready to burst if you like, alien out of the stomach of John Hurt.


    Lee Crompton

    And if it had been another couple of months, then I wouldn't be here.


    Lee Crompton

    And that's the only explanation they give me is it was encapsulated in the other stuff.


    Kevin Lowe

    Wow.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm not on any medication, I'm not on any, you know, I'm not.


    Lee Crompton

    I obviously take thyroxine, which is because I haven't got a thyroid.


    Lee Crompton

    So I have to take thyroxine tablets to replace what my thyroid should be doing, which is a thing in itself, because trying to get those levels rights is just.


    Lee Crompton

    Can be very difficult and it can be very exhausting and tiring and what have you.


    Lee Crompton

    But yeah, as I was chatting to someone, you're still living with it.


    Lee Crompton

    You're still.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm still living with cancer.


    Lee Crompton

    I've not got cancer, but I'm still living with the aftermath of that.


    Lee Crompton

    But to everybody else, are you the guy who had Cancer, four years ago.


    Lee Crompton

    And it's all, it's all better now?


    Lee Crompton

    Well, on the face of it, yes, but you know, it's left some, some visit physical scars and mental scars.


    Lee Crompton

    But no, they, they can't really give me any explanation as to why it is what it is.


    Lee Crompton

    But yeah, like I say, I, I walk in, I'm almost like a minor celebrity.


    Lee Crompton

    Oh, hi, Lee.


    Lee Crompton

    You're still here, still going.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm still knocking about.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah, okay.


    Lee Crompton

    See, another six months.


    Lee Crompton

    I mean, it's bizarre.


    Lee Crompton

    It's bizarre.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah.


    Kevin Lowe

    I mean, coming from my own perspective of my own story of becoming blind and the neurosurgeon having no explanation for it.


    Kevin Lowe

    I mean, it was a 1% possibility to begin with.


    Kevin Lowe

    I can say that at some point you have to just figure it was obviously meant to be part of my story and to focus on moving forward.


    Kevin Lowe

    But for you and yourself, it's such an interesting.


    Kevin Lowe

    I think you used the word odd dynamic of this whole situation and through all of this journey.


    Kevin Lowe

    I think this is kind of segue into your podcast is your mental health when you were alone at night.


    Kevin Lowe

    And I think sometimes it's at night when we can't sleep that sometimes can be the worst with our mind.


    Kevin Lowe

    How are you?


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah, definitely.


    Lee Crompton

    And I always thought that I had a story to tell and I always sort of dabbled with the idea of doing a podcast.


    Lee Crompton

    But then I thought, well, other than say one episode, he wants to hear me rattle on about cancer every week.


    Lee Crompton

    That's very depressing prospect.


    Lee Crompton

    Tune in next week for some more dull cancer stories.


    Lee Crompton

    I've told you my best anecdotes about the guy with the.


    Lee Crompton

    Oh, I haven't told you one of my best anecdotes.


    Lee Crompton

    Can I tell you another anecdote?


    Kevin Lowe

    Why please.


    Lee Crompton

    So what I didn't tell you is that part of the things you have like a blind spot.


    Lee Crompton

    So after the second operation, they then have to give me a dose of radioactive iodine treatment which I'll try and explain in as small detail as possible or shorter detail as possible.


    Lee Crompton

    You take a radioactive pill and you go inside a lead lined room and so whatever you take in does not come out again.


    Lee Crompton

    It gets incinerated.


    Lee Crompton

    So even the clothes on your back, whatever, you so don't wear any posh clothes in because they're going to get burnt.


    Lee Crompton

    Just go in, in your pajamas or whatever you're going to do and you're in there for.


    Lee Crompton

    I think I was in there for three or four days and you lie on this bed with a Geiger counter above the bed and the only people that you see are the nurses who come in twice a day in lead aprons and all the lead garb and they step forward and they give you your dinner and then they step back whilst you to allow you to step forward to get the tray and then that.


    Lee Crompton

    And then you have your lunch or dinner or whatever, breakfast and then you leave it on the side, right, other than that and you maybe say a few words to them then from a distance, but that's it, you don't see anybody else.


    Lee Crompton

    And then it's on my second day so I should do a second.


    Lee Crompton

    So I'm in the room that's the leaded bit but there's like a half height wall which is where they pass the dinner across and then on the other side is just like a bit of a lobby where there's a sink and like where my normal clothes are.


    Lee Crompton

    So the clothes I'm going to obviously go home in because they're going to burn my clothes and I'd rather not go home naked if at all possible.


    Lee Crompton

    So the clothes that I'm going to wear when I come out are on the other side of this wall.


    Lee Crompton

    So this guy comes in and.


    Lee Crompton

    All right, so I'm watching some like rubbish on the daytime telly and he says are you all right?


    Lee Crompton

    I said yeah, yeah, not bad, how you doing?


    Lee Crompton

    Oh yeah, fine.


    Lee Crompton

    Mind if I clean your sink?


    Lee Crompton

    And I said no, you crack on mate, you crack on.


    Lee Crompton

    So he's washing, he's wiping the sink on the other side of this wall and then he walks through.


    Lee Crompton

    Do you mind if I do this sink?


    Lee Crompton

    And there's like a sink at the end of my bed, right, and I've got like an ensuite bit as well which again is lead lined.


    Lee Crompton

    So he comes in and starts wiping this sink on now my side of the wall and I'm like, I don't, I'm not sure he's supposed to be in here.


    Lee Crompton

    And he's chatting away.


    Lee Crompton

    Oh, what are you watching on the telly mate?


    Lee Crompton

    I said oh I don't know, it's some rubbish, some daytime rubbish.


    Lee Crompton

    All right, I'm just going to do your en suite.


    Lee Crompton

    And he's wiping down the door handles and blah, blah because we're still in Covid, right?


    Lee Crompton

    So he's doing all the wiping it all down and then I can feel the hairs go on the back up on my neck as I'm telling this story.


    Lee Crompton

    He comes down the side of the bed and starts wiping the handles.


    Lee Crompton

    He's literally crouched down right next to me under this Geiger counter, wiping the handles of the bedside cupboard.


    Lee Crompton

    And I'm thinking, I.


    Lee Crompton

    I really don't think he's supposed to be in.


    Lee Crompton

    But he's a cleaner, right?


    Lee Crompton

    So he must know what he's doing.


    Lee Crompton

    He knows the.


    Lee Crompton

    Because you see the nurses, as soon as they give you the pill, they're off.


    Lee Crompton

    They're behind the.


    Lee Crompton

    They're behind the lead screen.


    Lee Crompton

    They don't want anything to do with you.


    Lee Crompton

    So it's at that point, oh, Dave, Dave, you can't be in there.


    Lee Crompton

    He's.


    Lee Crompton

    He's.


    Lee Crompton

    He's.


    Lee Crompton

    Hayley.


    Lee Crompton

    Because I think they've given me the highest radioactive dose they're allowed to give me because they want to blast me.


    Lee Crompton

    You can't be in there, Dave.


    Lee Crompton

    He's highly radioactive and he's like, what?


    Lee Crompton

    What?


    Lee Crompton

    So the nurse comes in and drags him out.


    Lee Crompton

    So he goes out and I could hear them talking in the corridor outside.


    Lee Crompton

    And he said, oh, he called me over to see.


    Lee Crompton

    He wanted to show me something on the telly.


    Lee Crompton

    Because I'm laying in bed, I'm like, no, he's throwing me under the bus.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm like, no, I didn't.


    Lee Crompton

    So it turns out it's this guy's first day as a cleaner and it's like a T junction, this corridor.


    Lee Crompton

    So the two wards that are on the one corridor aren't lead line, they're just normal, common or garden.


    Lee Crompton

    And you can go in and he's come round the corner, come into the first one, which is me, unbeknown to him, just started cleaning and I never saw him again.


    Lee Crompton

    I don't know what happened to him.


    Lee Crompton

    But yeah, he was like.


    Lee Crompton

    He threw me under the bus.


    Lee Crompton

    So I often wonder what's happened to poor Dave.


    Lee Crompton

    But he was in merrily cleaning away while I'm.


    Lee Crompton

    Cause that was the thing.


    Lee Crompton

    So when I came out, I had to live on my own.


    Lee Crompton

    Well, my mum actually moved up for a while.


    Lee Crompton

    I had to be on my own for 10 days.


    Lee Crompton

    Cause I'm like, you wouldn't know what the Ready Breck man is over there, would you?


    Lee Crompton

    But I'm radioactive, so I can't come in contact with, well, anybody really.


    Lee Crompton

    Especially not young kids.


    Lee Crompton

    So, yeah, I was still radioactive for 10 days after coming out and I'm housebound and can't.


    Lee Crompton

    So goodness knows how radioactive I was at the time that Dave was squatting next to my bed, wiping down the handles of my bedside unit.


    Lee Crompton

    But yeah, poor Dave.


    Lee Crompton

    I hope he's okay, what was your original question, Kevin?


    Lee Crompton

    Sorry, I forgot.


    Kevin Lowe

    I have no idea what I asked you, but what you answered was way better than what my question was.


    Lee Crompton

    I think we were getting into the podcast, so why was I so, yes, I was going to do the podcast.


    Lee Crompton

    Who wants to hear about me?


    Lee Crompton

    Bark on about once you've heard my anecdotes, once you don't want to hear me week in, week out talking about cancer.


    Lee Crompton

    But what I did have was a lot of people who reached out to me because.


    Lee Crompton

    Right, here's another story.


    Lee Crompton

    So I was diagnosed in the September, and it got to about the November ish time.


    Lee Crompton

    And I said to my wife, I said, look, I'm going to have to put a post out on social media.


    Lee Crompton

    And she says, we can't do that.


    Lee Crompton

    It's a very private thing.


    Lee Crompton

    I was like, I get that.


    Lee Crompton

    But the alternative is we get till after Christmas.


    Lee Crompton

    And because I don't know how long you know, of that.


    Lee Crompton

    Four to six months.


    Lee Crompton

    How much am I accomplishment and how much am I in sort of palliative care or whatever, that you have to put a post out in the new year sometime and say ever so sorry just to let everyone know on Facebook or whatever, friends and what have you, that Lee's been taken into palliative care or worse still, Lee's dead.


    Lee Crompton

    And I'm sorry, it's not funny at all.


    Lee Crompton

    But I'm like.


    Lee Crompton

    And she said, yeah, yeah, there is that.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah, you better.


    Lee Crompton

    What do you mean he's dead?


    Lee Crompton

    I didn't even know he had cancer because we've kept it to ourselves.


    Lee Crompton

    I said things could change very, very quickly.


    Lee Crompton

    So we made the decision that we put a post out there to tell people what was happening as vaguely as we could.


    Lee Crompton

    But of course, that the floodgates open.


    Lee Crompton

    And I suppose that's what started the podcast called Mind Cake.


    Lee Crompton

    And it started about 12 months ago.


    Lee Crompton

    So it's maybe three years after I was diagnosed.


    Lee Crompton

    But the genesis of that was.


    Lee Crompton

    So then, of course, people wanted updates.


    Lee Crompton

    So I was posting updates probably in line with the oncology appointment.


    Lee Crompton

    So every month to start with, every three months, every six months, whatever.


    Lee Crompton

    And I had people coming to me saying, you know, you've obviously been through the mill, and that must be, you know, a terrible experience that you've had.


    Lee Crompton

    I don't know.


    Lee Crompton

    You know, you've been so brave and so strong and so inspirational, which, you know, I happen to think I haven't.


    Lee Crompton

    I just.


    Lee Crompton

    I was just put in a situation.


    Lee Crompton

    You kind of got to do what you got to do.


    Lee Crompton

    But people were coming out with their stories and saying, look, I'm having.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm having mental health problems.


    Lee Crompton

    Have you got any advice of how to sort of get through and how to sort of navigate?


    Lee Crompton

    And I'm like, not really, no.


    Lee Crompton

    I have a fairly unique backstory.


    Lee Crompton

    But, you know, I'm.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm on.


    Lee Crompton

    I don't mind saying I'm on antidepressants and I go and see a clinical psychologist once a fortnight.


    Lee Crompton

    So, you know, we're all kind of in the same boat.


    Lee Crompton

    But why don't we.


    Lee Crompton

    Let's use this as a vehicle to explore, you know, mental health and coping mechanisms and get some guests on and talk to experts and just hear people's stories and, and as you can probably tell from my tone on this, and we don't take ourselves very seriously.


    Lee Crompton

    It's, you know, it's a quite difficult subject matter, but it's a bit of a laugh, really.


    Lee Crompton

    We do have a lot of waffle.


    Lee Crompton

    We go off a lot of tangents and I think I find it quite cathartic just, you know, because it's.


    Lee Crompton

    I've got a self interest here.


    Lee Crompton

    We'll go, let's try a sound bath.


    Lee Crompton

    Let's try some meditation.


    Lee Crompton

    Let's, you know, I was.


    Lee Crompton

    Had some bee therapy the other day.


    Lee Crompton

    I mean, I'd never even heard of bee therapy.


    Lee Crompton

    And, you know, and I think there's a nice little community that we're.


    Lee Crompton

    That we're building.


    Lee Crompton

    And I found some real kind of solace in doing the podcast and just connecting with people and building this community.


    Lee Crompton

    And, you know, because I think I had a politician, you're probably not aware of him over in the States, but he's quite high profile.


    Lee Crompton

    He was Tony Blair's director of communications, a guy called Alistair Campbell, and he managed to get him on the podcast, which is a whole different story, which I won't go into now.


    Lee Crompton

    And he was saying kind of, look, we're all on the spectrum, if you like, we've all got mental health, some of us have good mental health, some of us have bad mental health, but we're all on a scale 0 to 10.


    Lee Crompton

    It's just a case of where we are on that scale.


    Lee Crompton

    So, yeah, I think it's interesting to kind of explore that and kind of help each other through, because I think part of the thing for me is that it's like anything in life.


    Lee Crompton

    I think if you hear of.


    Lee Crompton

    I think people think that their story is unique and they're the only people that feel like that.


    Lee Crompton

    And it can feel quite isolating.


    Lee Crompton

    And, you know, I know from feelings that I've had when, you know, if you can relate to someone and you go, that's how.


    Lee Crompton

    That's how I feel.


    Lee Crompton

    I thought that was just me that felt like that.


    Lee Crompton

    And all of a sudden you don't feel quite as much as a, I don't know, a weirdo for want of a better expression or a social leper because you go, all right, I thought I was alone in this.


    Lee Crompton

    And the fact that you can share your stories and have people who can empathize with that and understand is very powerful, I think.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah, absolutely.


    Kevin Lowe

    I have two questions.


    Kevin Lowe

    First question, your wife was hesitant about you posting on Facebook.


    Kevin Lowe

    How did she react when you said, honey, I want to do a podcast.


    Lee Crompton

    That'S fine.


    Lee Crompton

    She doesn't listen, so I can do what I like.


    Lee Crompton

    So I should say that episode two is kind of my story and pretty much everything that I've said on your podcast in terms of what happened and why I'm doing it, but the rest of it is very much, like I say, speaking to other people.


    Lee Crompton

    It's not wrapped up in cancer or doom and gloom.


    Lee Crompton

    It's very upbeat.


    Lee Crompton

    There's some difficult subject matter, but me and Paul, who's the co host, have a good laugh doing it.


    Lee Crompton

    And, yeah, I don't reveal, other than that.


    Lee Crompton

    Episode two, it's not something where I'm navel gazing and harking back to those terrible times four years ago.


    Lee Crompton

    I think it's quite a positive.


    Lee Crompton

    And she sees that.


    Lee Crompton

    She sees.


    Lee Crompton

    She sees my face light up.


    Lee Crompton

    When I'm sure you're the same, Kevin, when you.


    Lee Crompton

    When you.


    Lee Crompton

    When you're speaking to certain people and just getting to know people and finding out their stories, there's something very, very privileged about that.


    Lee Crompton

    When you.


    Lee Crompton

    When, you know, you can just.


    Lee Crompton

    I've met people and chatted well, like yourself, who I would never have dreamed of.


    Lee Crompton

    You wouldn't work in the same country, but the same circles, the same kind of.


    Lee Crompton

    Whoever it might be.


    Lee Crompton

    And I think there's something very special about that.


    Lee Crompton

    And so, yeah, I think she's.


    Lee Crompton

    She's probably changed her mind from someone who was probably quite.


    Lee Crompton

    Not skeptical, but just maybe slightly concerned to start with.


    Lee Crompton

    She can now see that it's kind of, you know, it's grown into something that's, you know, a positive force, that.


    Lee Crompton

    That is really quite, I think, to be celebrated.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah, absolutely.


    Kevin Lowe

    The name of the podcast, Mind Cake.


    Kevin Lowe

    What.


    Kevin Lowe

    What does that mean?


    Kevin Lowe

    Where did that come from?


    Lee Crompton

    It depends whether you ask me or whether you Ask Paul.


    Kevin Lowe

    Okay.


    Lee Crompton

    So I came up with the name Mind Cake for reasons I will go into later.


    Lee Crompton

    Paul liked.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah, yeah, I like that because it's like the mind is like a cake with all different layers, and we're, you know, all different layers of the mind, and we're all different kind of flavors, and we're all different types of the same cake.


    Lee Crompton

    And I'm like, no, no, you're really looking into this far too much.


    Lee Crompton

    We have a comedy character.


    Lee Crompton

    We have a comedy character over here called Alan Partridge.


    Lee Crompton

    I don't know if you're aware of Alan Partridge.


    Kevin Lowe

    I'm not.


    Lee Crompton

    No, no.


    Lee Crompton

    See if you can find some clips on YouTube because he is hilarious.


    Lee Crompton

    He's still going now.


    Lee Crompton

    He's been going for years.


    Lee Crompton

    Steve Coogan.


    Lee Crompton

    Are you wearing Steve Coogan?


    Kevin Lowe

    Okay.


    Lee Crompton

    The actor.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah, he plays this character, Alan Partridge.


    Lee Crompton

    Now, if he was doing a mental health podcast, he would call it Mind Cake because that's the kind of guy that he is.


    Lee Crompton

    So it doesn't kind of work if you don't know who Alan Partridge is.


    Lee Crompton

    But I was like, big comedy hero of mine.


    Lee Crompton

    It was what Alan Partridge would call a mental health podcast.


    Lee Crompton

    So, yeah, it's take which one you want.


    Lee Crompton

    Whether the deep.


    Lee Crompton

    Paul's deep version on mine was.


    Lee Crompton

    It's just.


    Lee Crompton

    What I should say as well is there is a guy, Peter McVeigh.


    Lee Crompton

    Hello, Peter, if you're listening, who is in the bands.


    Lee Crompton

    And Alban, he's the voice.


    Lee Crompton

    He kindly did our opening jingle, and I think this says everything about the podcast.


    Lee Crompton

    I didn't give him anything to go on.


    Lee Crompton

    I said, can you just give me a jingle?


    Lee Crompton

    Opening jingle.


    Lee Crompton

    So he's written the music and sung, sung the theme tune.


    Lee Crompton

    And it says, all he says is, let's start a podcast about our mental health, and for no good reason why, let's call it Mind Cake.


    Lee Crompton

    And that kind of sums up.


    Lee Crompton

    It just sounds.


    Lee Crompton

    I think it sounds quite good.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah, I agree.


    Kevin Lowe

    I like it.


    Kevin Lowe

    I think it's catchy.


    Kevin Lowe

    And it's catchy.


    Lee Crompton

    Who doesn't like cake?


    Kevin Lowe

    Exactly, Exactly.


    Kevin Lowe

    I agree 100%.


    Kevin Lowe

    Wow, that is just so very funny.


    Kevin Lowe

    And yet, what I love about it, what I love about the podcast is this idea that you can take something that happened to you and you can turn it around in a way to be able to help other people, you know, and that's how I know in my own life and my own story, I've been able to make sense of it all, is if I'm able to use it to help others, then it kind of makes me grateful in a way.


    Lee Crompton

    Absolutely.


    Lee Crompton

    I mean, how many episodes are you on now, Kevin?


    Kevin Lowe

    I am up to 300 and something.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah.


    Lee Crompton

    Oh, wow.


    Lee Crompton

    Are you weekly?


    Kevin Lowe

    I am twice a week.


    Lee Crompton

    Wow.


    Lee Crompton

    Wow.


    Lee Crompton

    Okay.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah.


    Lee Crompton

    Okay.


    Lee Crompton

    And have you found it?


    Lee Crompton

    Like I said, have you found it quite.


    Lee Crompton

    How do you feel about doing it?


    Lee Crompton

    I'd be interested to know.


    Lee Crompton

    Have you found it cathartic?


    Lee Crompton

    Have you found it meeting people with terminal cancer on the other side of the pond?


    Lee Crompton

    Again, you must have had some weird and wonderful guests on over 300 episodes.


    Lee Crompton

    And so how do you find it doing these interviews?


    Kevin Lowe

    They literally light up my day.


    Kevin Lowe

    I believe firmly that in this life, the things that matter the most are the relationships we make and the experiences we have.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah, when I get to do this podcast, I combine both of those.


    Kevin Lowe

    I get to meet somebody, but I get to create an experience out of it by sitting down with them, getting to hear their story.


    Kevin Lowe

    And for myself, it just lights me up.


    Kevin Lowe

    It's a lot of work.


    Kevin Lowe

    As you know, doing a podcast is a lot to prepare for it.


    Kevin Lowe

    And there's some days when I'll be honest, I get out of bed and I'm like, oh, no, I have an interview today.


    Kevin Lowe

    But it's the best thing that happens to me in that day because literally, I come out the other side and I just feel like a better version of me.


    Kevin Lowe

    And I only can hope and pray that anybody listening that they come away the same way.


    Kevin Lowe

    Because take you, for instance.


    Kevin Lowe

    When you hear your story, you feel sad.


    Kevin Lowe

    When you meet you, you can't feel sad, because when you meet you and you hear you in your perspective, in your sense of humor and your positive outlook, it's absolutely just electric.


    Lee Crompton

    Thank you.


    Kevin Lowe

    And you, you're a remarkable guy, man.


    Lee Crompton

    Thank you.


    Lee Crompton

    I really appreciate that.


    Lee Crompton

    I appreciate that.


    Lee Crompton

    Because like you say, as you were saying, it's connections that you make and the experiences you have.


    Lee Crompton

    And another, not quite as an entertaining anecdote, but we were the night before.


    Lee Crompton

    And I think that's the thing is, you know, you kind of have to.


    Lee Crompton

    Again, it's something that we all realize, but we don't want to think about that.


    Lee Crompton

    You know, your life can change on a dime.


    Lee Crompton

    And the night before.


    Lee Crompton

    So on the 15th of September, 2020, we were in a WhatsApp group with my wife's friends talking about doing, like, DIY in the hall, and she sending us links to.


    Lee Crompton

    We could maybe have this type of rugby, and you could maybe have, you know, this type of wallpaper and all these, like, Pinterest.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yes.


    Lee Crompton

    All These pins were going backwards and forwards.


    Lee Crompton

    We could do this and we could do that and that color scheme and blah, blah, blah, blah.


    Lee Crompton

    And we went to bed.


    Lee Crompton

    Gone.


    Lee Crompton

    Midnight that night on the 15th of September, and then by 9:00 on the 16th of September in the morning, I've been hit with this sledgehammer.


    Lee Crompton

    And you re.


    Lee Crompton

    And I remember ruminating that night before going, oh, no, I need to send that work email.


    Lee Crompton

    And I didn't go for my run yesterday.


    Lee Crompton

    You know, I've put on two pounds in weight and, and all these things, the day to day drama that you get caught up with and then you get hit with that sledgehammer and you realize, oh, oh, none of that actually matters.


    Lee Crompton

    Absolute.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah, absolutely.


    Lee Crompton

    I was trying to think of a word that's not a swear word.


    Lee Crompton

    I do apologize.


    Lee Crompton

    But none of that stuff matters.


    Lee Crompton

    None of that stuff matters at all.


    Lee Crompton

    And that was.


    Lee Crompton

    One of the first people we told was Heather, who was kind of helping us with the design because I'm like, we're going to have to.


    Lee Crompton

    She kindly sent all these pins of wallpaper and radiator casings and blah, blah, blah.


    Lee Crompton

    And then there's been radio silence.


    Lee Crompton

    You're going to have to tell her.


    Lee Crompton

    I don't know what you're going to tell her, but you're going to have to tell her something.


    Lee Crompton

    And like I say, all.


    Lee Crompton

    All that I wanted to do then was be with my kids and with my family, and there isn't.


    Lee Crompton

    So the rest of it doesn't matter at all.


    Lee Crompton

    No, but it takes you to get to that lowest ebb, to kind of realize that.


    Lee Crompton

    Or for me to realize it anyway.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah, no, absolutely.


    Kevin Lowe

    For somebody listening today, and maybe they're struggling mentally, what would you love to say to them?


    Kevin Lowe

    Advice you have.


    Kevin Lowe

    Besides for telling them to go listen to your podcast, what would you say to that person?


    Lee Crompton

    Oh, I wouldn't know.


    Lee Crompton

    Don't listen to my podcast.


    Lee Crompton

    If there's no.


    Lee Crompton

    Unless you.


    Lee Crompton

    If you're an insomniac and you trouble sleeping, then by all means tune into Mindcake and you should have no problem dropping off whatsoever.


    Lee Crompton

    If you've got any real problems, then go and see a professional.


    Lee Crompton

    But no, I mean, I think it can take many different forms.


    Lee Crompton

    If you're again speaking to Alistair Campbell, he was saying that he will grade himself every morning.


    Lee Crompton

    And I think it's quite an interesting thing to do.


    Lee Crompton

    And I started doing it myself now.


    Lee Crompton

    So again, one will be blissfully happy, which is kind of unattainable in his world where without wanting to put My colors to the mask where Donald Trump was never president of the United States and where Brexit never happened.


    Lee Crompton

    And yeah, it's unattainable happiness equally.


    Lee Crompton

    10 is suicide.


    Lee Crompton

    So he will get up in the morning and will think, right, I'm probably about a 3 or a 4 or whatever it is.


    Lee Crompton

    And he says, if I become a five or a six, then I know I need to do something to try and rectify that balance.


    Lee Crompton

    So whether that's going for a walk, whether that's, you know, walking the dog or doing some meditation or whatever things work for him to try.


    Lee Crompton

    And I mean, quite an interesting episode I did was an episode with.


    Lee Crompton

    Have you heard of shed therapy?


    Kevin Lowe

    I have not.


    Lee Crompton

    It's not.


    Lee Crompton

    It's nothing to do with garden sheds.


    Lee Crompton

    Oh, it's an acronym.


    Lee Crompton

    It's an acronym for.


    Lee Crompton

    Although I'm sure gardening and planting your own vegetables is equally beneficial.


    Lee Crompton

    Yes, but if you don't want to grow your own broccoli, then shed is so sleep, hydration, exercise, diet.


    Lee Crompton

    And I think if you can keep those plates spinning, I mean, I noticed that if I've drunk my two liters of water in the day, I feel, you know, so much better.


    Lee Crompton

    Diet is huge, I think plays a huge part in our mental health.


    Lee Crompton

    If you put rubbish in, then, you know, you get rubbish out and you don't, you don't feel, you know, all this highly processed food.


    Lee Crompton

    And like I say, I'm not evangelical about it.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm not.


    Lee Crompton

    I've not come out the other side of this and gone, right, I am now completely vegan and I don't drink any alcohol and I'm, you know, I'm.


    Lee Crompton

    That's.


    Lee Crompton

    That's not me.


    Lee Crompton

    I think you have to strike a balance between, you know, living but also being, you know, sensible.


    Lee Crompton

    So I think depending on.


    Lee Crompton

    If someone.


    Lee Crompton

    Look, clearly if someone is feeling depressed, then the first thing you should do is go and see the doctor or talk to someone about it.


    Lee Crompton

    Because I think sharing that, going to the doctors and admitting that there is a problem, I think is probably the hardest thing to do.


    Lee Crompton

    But if you're just in the.


    Lee Crompton

    I say just in the.


    Lee Crompton

    If you're in the day to day, I feel a bit of a malaise.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm just feeling a bit.


    Lee Crompton

    Sometimes, I mean, sometimes I wake up, for example, and I feel just disconnected.


    Lee Crompton

    I don't feel like I'm in the real world.


    Lee Crompton

    I feel.


    Lee Crompton

    It's very difficult to explain, but I feel that I'm almost like watching my life through a TV or through A lens.


    Lee Crompton

    It does.


    Lee Crompton

    It doesn't quite feel real.


    Lee Crompton

    And I know then that I didn't sleep.


    Lee Crompton

    I went to bed at like half eleven or whatever.


    Lee Crompton

    I didn't.


    Lee Crompton

    I didn't get a proper night's sleep or I've not.


    Lee Crompton

    I've not exercised, I'm not.


    Lee Crompton

    And I have to put things in place.


    Lee Crompton

    And I think that's going back to the podcast.


    Lee Crompton

    I think that's the thing.


    Lee Crompton

    What we always say is what works for me might not work for you.


    Lee Crompton

    So it's kind of a buffet, if you like, of trying all these different things and encouraging other people to try different things and seeing what works for them.


    Lee Crompton

    I would say the one thing that works for me is cold water therapy.


    Lee Crompton

    You talk about mindfulness and meditation.


    Lee Crompton

    I find it very difficult to sit still and think about nothing.


    Lee Crompton

    I find meditation very, very difficult.


    Lee Crompton

    But plunge into, as I said, I'm not far from Loch Lomond.


    Lee Crompton

    Plunge into Loch Lomond or take a cold shower.


    Lee Crompton

    There's not much else you can think about other than, bloody hell, this is cold.


    Lee Crompton

    I mean, you don't, you're not thinking about, you're not thinking about anything else.


    Lee Crompton

    And it's also, I mean, I feel great.


    Lee Crompton

    I feel great when I come out of a cold shower.


    Lee Crompton

    It's taken a while to sort of get myself, tune myself into that.


    Lee Crompton

    But, yeah, I think if there's, if there's one thing I could do that I know that if I'm in a bit of a funky is take a cold shower.


    Lee Crompton

    But like I say that, but Paul, the co host, I've been trying to get him to do cold water therapy for, well, since we started the podcast.


    Lee Crompton

    That's 12 months and he's got no chance.


    Lee Crompton

    I am not, I am not taking a cold shower.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm like.


    Lee Crompton

    But the benefits, I think you really feel the benefit.


    Lee Crompton

    No, not interested.


    Lee Crompton

    So clearly not for him.


    Lee Crompton

    But no, I think, like you say, professional help.


    Lee Crompton

    I don't know what it's like in the States, to be fair.


    Lee Crompton

    The problem that you've got here in the uk, we have the nhs, we have the National Health Service.


    Lee Crompton

    But the problem is, if I went to the doctors now and said, look, I think of, I'm struggling with anxiety or depression or whatever, I would be on a waiting list for probably, I don't know, eight, nine, ten months before I would get to see a professional, which is.


    Lee Crompton

    Which is no good.


    Lee Crompton

    So I'm, you know, I'm lucky that I've got private healthcare with work.


    Lee Crompton

    So, yeah, I get to see somebody privately but if you're just going through the nhs, then, yeah, I mean, it's.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm trying to think what Alastair Campbell described as.


    Lee Crompton

    It's not a mental health service, it's a mental health crisis, because if it was a service, somebody would be on tap to help you.


    Lee Crompton

    And what he also says, and again, going back to those mechanisms, is trying to do things that are preventative rather than, you know, I now feel, because of whatever facts, whether they're external factors that, you know, you've been diagnosed with cancer or you've, you know, you've lost your sight, whatever it might be that's caused your anxiety or depression, or whether it's something internally, like, say, your diet or you're not getting enough sleep or whatever, you should be able to see someone.


    Lee Crompton

    But that's not always.


    Lee Crompton

    It's not always easy.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah.


    Lee Crompton

    And like I said, I don't know what would be the situation in the States at the minute if you.


    Lee Crompton

    If you decided that you wanted to see somebody?


    Lee Crompton

    How does that work?


    Kevin Lowe

    I honestly don't know as far as.


    Kevin Lowe

    Unless it's just reaching out to your own local doctor and going from there.


    Kevin Lowe

    I really am not familiar with it, honestly.


    Kevin Lowe

    Besides that avenue, I mean, goodness, anybody interested look up better help?


    Kevin Lowe

    That's what I hear on all the podcasts lately, is everybody promoting BetterHelp, and I guess it's a number you can call, but I think it is a mental health crisis in.


    Kevin Lowe

    In this world.


    Kevin Lowe

    And I mean, just here in America.


    Kevin Lowe

    I mean, it is something that I don't think.


    Kevin Lowe

    It's not.


    Kevin Lowe

    It's not understood and it's not respected enough as an actual problem, you know, an illness, you know, a medical issue, you know, where other things get more attention and it does need more light brought to it.


    Kevin Lowe

    And I think that's what's powerful about a conversation with you today.


    Kevin Lowe

    What's powerful about your podcast, mindcake, is bringing it to the forelight to understanding that if you are in a place where you're feeling a little down, you're sad, you're depressed, that you're not alone and it's okay, and there is resources and help for you.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah.


    Lee Crompton

    And like I said, I've had my own instances where we've, you know, there's this.


    Lee Crompton

    Professionals, mental health professionals that have said to me, like, after two years, you know, how you.


    Lee Crompton

    How you feeling about, you know, what's happened and what have you?


    Lee Crompton

    And like, I'm really struggling mentally to sort of process this and kind of get my head around it and They've turned around to me and said, it's been two years, Lee.


    Lee Crompton

    Do you think you should maybe try and change the narrative?


    Lee Crompton

    And.


    Lee Crompton

    Oh, yeah, no, I just.


    Lee Crompton

    Again, you go, because you're over that now, aren't you?


    Lee Crompton

    You're over that now.


    Lee Crompton

    So I say, even me, as if I'm, you know, at the pinnacle of mental health problems, but even someone who's dealt with terminal cancer has people who are mental health professionals say, should you not be over it by now?


    Lee Crompton

    And it's like you say, it's invisible.


    Lee Crompton

    If I went in and my leg was falling off, don't mean I had a gash in my leg, people would be, jesus Christ, we need to see this guy quick.


    Lee Crompton

    He's gonna lose his leg.


    Lee Crompton

    But go in with.


    Lee Crompton

    You know, and I think that's the thing.


    Lee Crompton

    As much as not.


    Lee Crompton

    We make light of.


    Lee Crompton

    We never.


    Lee Crompton

    We never make light of things on the podcast.


    Lee Crompton

    But as much as it's a serious.


    Lee Crompton

    It's a serious subject, and there is a.


    Lee Crompton

    There is still a taboo about it because you can't see it.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah.


    Lee Crompton

    And like I said, I think, like you mentioned there, I think if you can reach out to people, and I think that's the first step.


    Lee Crompton

    Reach out to people, whether that's, you know, somebody professional, whether that's a friend.


    Lee Crompton

    And I think you'll find that, you know, there are a lot of people who, you go, oh, oh, okay.


    Lee Crompton

    You feel like that as well.


    Lee Crompton

    I mean, I thought that was just me being a bit of an oddball, but it's, you know, it's.


    Lee Crompton

    It's more common than you think.


    Lee Crompton

    And I think having that, like I say, the safety numbers and that.


    Lee Crompton

    I'm not suggesting that everybody who listens to mindcake has got a mental health problem.


    Lee Crompton

    I think, you know, there's quite a lot of banter and.


    Lee Crompton

    And just waffle, as we call it, as well.


    Lee Crompton

    And obviously, people, the insomniacs who are desperate to fall asleep, they're part of our.


    Lee Crompton

    Huge.


    Lee Crompton

    Part of our demographic.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah.


    Lee Crompton

    I think it's just interesting, like you say, to have these discussions and try and talk more openly.


    Lee Crompton

    More openly about it.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah, absolutely.


    Kevin Lowe

    Well, before we close out, be sure to tell everyone where's the easiest, best places that they can find.


    Kevin Lowe

    And listen to Mindcake.


    Lee Crompton

    Mindcake is on all the platforms.


    Lee Crompton

    So all you insomniacs out there, you can go on Spotify, you can go on Apple Podcasts.


    Lee Crompton

    I think it's on.


    Lee Crompton

    But if you go, we have a link tree.


    Lee Crompton

    So if you just search mindcake, you will find us.


    Lee Crompton

    It's like a brain in a cupcake.


    Lee Crompton

    It's a mind in a cupcake.


    Lee Crompton

    You'll see it.


    Lee Crompton

    We do have, I think we've got about 7% of our listeners from the States, so we got a few from the other side of the pond over there.


    Lee Crompton

    But it'd be nice to get.


    Lee Crompton

    Nice to get a few more.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah, we just like to listen to Yalls.


    Kevin Lowe

    Cool accents, you know.


    Lee Crompton

    Yeah, I should say that.


    Kevin Lowe

    Yeah.


    Lee Crompton

    I am from the south of England, obviously not sounding very Scottish.


    Lee Crompton

    I have lived up here 17 years, but not picked up the twang.


    Lee Crompton

    Yes.


    Lee Crompton

    But yeah, no, I'd definitely be tuned into your podcast, Kevin, because it's been an absolute pleasure to.


    Lee Crompton

    To talk to you and I've really enjoyed it.


    Lee Crompton

    So thank you.


    Kevin Lowe

    Oh, well, thank you.


    Kevin Lowe

    That means a lot to me and it has equally made my day.


    Kevin Lowe

    Thank you.


    Kevin Lowe

    And for you listening, be sure to check out today's show notes.


    Kevin Lowe

    I, of course, will leave links where you can find Mindcake wherever you like to listen.


    Kevin Lowe

    And most of all, thank you for being here.


    Kevin Lowe

    Hope you enjoyed.


    Kevin Lowe

    And of course, more than anything, I hope something said today might help you.


    Kevin Lowe

    Maybe you're been struggling.


    Kevin Lowe

    Maybe you know somebody who's maybe been struggling and maybe you could share today's episode with them or just reach out to them and be a friend.


    Kevin Lowe

    That means a lot.


    Kevin Lowe

    So with that said, this is another episode of great grace and inspiration.


    Kevin Lowe

    I'm your host, Kevin Lowe.


    Kevin Lowe

    Get out there and enjoy the day.


    Lee Crompton

    Sa.


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