"If I wasn’t the one doing the fighting, who was it that saved my life?” Cancer patient and theatre maker Toby Peach's story (pt 1)

Toby Peach was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the age of 19. At the time he had no real idea of what cancer was or what happens when it is treated.

His experience gave him a new perspective on cancer and made him realise how misunderstood the disease often is: ‘It slowly became apparent that I wasn’t the one who had beaten this thing. When I realised that it was me fighting me – it was a rebellion, then who saved me? If I wasn’t the one doing the fighting, who was it that saved my life?’

From this experience he created a theatre production - The Eulogy of Toby Peach - that is part celebration of life, part exploration of the complexities of being a cancer patient. As he explains, ‘If one in two people are going to have cancer, should we not know what we are going to face? What is this thing we hear so much about?’

We spoke to Toby about his story and you can watch part one of the interview below.