Every person living with cancer has a different way of coping with the overwhelming emotions and life changes that come with it. When Katie Phillips was diagnosed with a "rare and complicated" thyroid cancer at the age of 43, she found that her most powerful tool was her voice - so she used it.
Katie decided to keep an audio diary of her conversations with a friend, and after much demand, she launched a podcast called Talking with Cancer online. Now thousands of people tune in worldwide to follow Katie's life, her treatment and how she's experiencing her new world - in her own words, "everything has changed and nothing has changed".
In February this year, Katie visited a chest specialist about a persistent cough and small lump in the back of her throat.
Having had no prior health concerns or issues, she couldn't have been more shocked to hear that she had cancer.
The coming weeks were a blur as she discovered that she had a type of thyroid papillary cancer, known as hobnail, with a ROS1 fusion.
"The shock, the sadness, the heartbreak, the 'this cannot be me' were all emotions that played out in magnitude," Katie recalled.
Katie began taking medication every day to shrink the gene that causes the cancer, and months later, had a nine-hour operation to remove her thyroid and 100 lymph nodes with it.
All the while, she spoke to her long-time friend of 20 years, Clair Whitefield, each week about her ongoing treatment.
Just like that statistic 'one in two of us will experience cancer in our lifetime', Katie has cancer and Clair doesn't.
"Quite early on, I was being inundated with messages from family and friends asking questions that I didn't have the answers to," Katie explained.
"I felt a bit ignorant about my own illness, so I decided to ask my friend Claire to have a chat and record it.
"I sent it to a few close people and we did it again and again. We were doing them weekly and eventually it just made sense to put it out as a podcast."
Their video conversations were shared online and Katie set up an Instagram page to record both the everyday and the monumental moments in her cancer journey.
"I've never been a social media person - my Instagram used to be full of pictures of my dog," Katie chuckled. "I wasn't someone who shared their life online.
"There were times I thought I was really exposing myself, but it always felt good speaking to Claire as she's such a brilliant person."
From the lighter moments, like sticking crystals on her medicine bottles, to the hard-hitting topics, like being seen as the 'ill person', Katie addresses it all.
But her can-do positive outlook ensures each episode is always cathartic, inspiring and more often than not, very funny too.
"I struggled at the start as I didn't know who I was or how to deal with it. It was two weeks to the day after my diagnosis that I woke up and thought 'I am a positive and optimistic person' and everything changed," Katie said.
Clair has interviewed Katie's mum as well as her husband, Dinc Memis, 48, and Katie has brought her doctor and oncologist onto the pod too.
After two successful series, Katie has launched a third one solo and now brings new people onto the show to share their experiences of cancer.
She says the hardest part of it all has been talking about death, as "everybody thinks about it but not many people feel they can address it".
"It felt like there was a big elephant in the room before we spoke about it. Talking about death is not easy but I don't want to shy away from difficult topics," Katie explained.
At the moment, Katie's cancer treatment is working well but she doesn't know what the future holds.
"Studies up to this point have shown that this type of drug is only effective for a period of time," she said. "Then it's like the gene and the cancer almost become immune to it."
Whatever awaits Katie's journey, she will continue to pop on her headphones and talk it about it openly and honestly for the person that matters most - herself.
"The podcast really helps me and I love having a record of it," she said. "When I was recovering from surgery, I listened back to an episode and it reminded me that I can do this.
"It helps me to move on each week and process it. The fact it helps other people is an amazing by-product too."
You can listen in to Talking with Cancer on all podcast platforms or donate to Katie's fundraiser online.
