00:00:00] Stories Labels Misconceptions NHS remains a blessing created in 1948. We want it to remain great. A podcast Where we share our stories explore soloutions in all their they say its broken but its not done with yours hosts Val Barrett and Dr Jeremy Anderson

Val: welcome to Stories, Labels and Misconceptions, hosted by me, Val Barrett.

Dr Jeremy: And I'm Jeremy Anderson. 

Val: A podcast where we share our stories, experiences and explore solutions to the issues we face today within the NHS and social care. Today we have a very special guest,

Dr Jeremy: yes, Eleasha 

Val: her name is [00:01:00] Eleasha hi, Eleasha 

Eleasha: hi, everyone. 

Val: First of all. I'd like us all to share a little story, a little piece about one another, funny, quirky, whatever. Do you want the guest to go first, Eleasha?

Eleasha: Yeah, I'm happy to start. This one was a bit of a struggle because I'm not gonna lie, my life has been so boring and isolating since the pandemic. 

Val: Okay. 

Eleasha: But something did happen to me probably about two months ago now and it's, in hindsight it's funny but at the time it wasn't. One morning ~I ~I got up, and I went to the bathroom and I started brushing my teeth.

Eleasha: And then after I brushed my teeth, I started flossing in between each tooth. And as I was flossing, my tooth dropped out. On the floor. At this point, I screamed. 

Dr Jeremy: Yeah. 

Eleasha: And I was like Mom, what just happened? ~I was in such a state of ~[00:02:00] shock. 

Val: Because it was a tooth. 

Eleasha: It was my tooth. Now I had a massive gap in my tooth. And ~I~ I looked like a homeless person on the street. It was horrendous. ~Shock. ~My mom ran to the bathroom. She was like, what happened? I was like, my tooth fell out. And she was like, what, where is it?

Eleasha: Where is it? Luckily, we don't have a drain in our sinks. 

Val: Yeah. 

Eleasha: If my tooth dropped into the sink, it would have gone down the drain. 

Val: Yeah. 

Eleasha: But luckily what happened, it dropped onto the floor. So what I did, I called my dentist straight away. It's actually not my real tooth.

Eleasha: It's my veneer. So my veneer dropped onto the floor and I called my dentist and I said, my veneer dropped out. What do I do? What do I do? And she was like, don't worry. I can fit you in an emergency appointment because obviously I can't be walking around [00:03:00] London with 

Val: a veneer is an emergency

Eleasha: she scheduled me on the same day. I went to the dentist and lucky God, my dentist was able to cement my veneer back into line. It was fine in the end. It was all good. But basically five years ago, or about six years ago now, I flew to Turkey.

Val: Wow. 

Eleasha: To get a set of veneers the end result was good and everything was fine. But because I documented my experience on YouTube. ~Yeah. ~Once that video went live, I got hundreds of DMs from people saying, Oh my God, I just did what you did. I went to Turkey, I got my teeth done. And then when I arrived home at Heathrow Airport, my teeth dropped out at the airport. 

Val: I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh.

Eleasha: I heard so many bad stories. 

Val: I shouldn't laugh. 

Eleasha: Of people going to Turkey. 

Val: [00:04:00] Turkey teeth. 

Eleasha: Luckily for me, I had never experienced anything like that in the past five years. And then two months ago, in my bathroom, it happened to me! 

Dr Jeremy: Oh, wow! 

Val: There was just one! Just one fell out. Did it teach you anything? 

Eleasha: To be honest, no, it didn't teach me anything because I would still do it because I like ~the end ~result of my yeah. I would still do it, but I would just say to anyone, if you're contemplating it, just be very cautious that you need money to maintain it and keep it.

Val: Oh, really? I didn't know that. 

Eleasha: Because anything can happen, like your tooth could drop out or they could. They tell me that if you don't look after them properly, what could happen, that the root of your tooth could actually die, and then you'll need an implant, and implants are like two grand per tooth it's quite serious, so if you're going to do this, make sure you have money to do it.

Dr Jeremy: Yeah, absolutely. 

Val: Okay, Jeremy, what is yours? 

Dr Jeremy: Yes. I don't think [00:05:00] I can compete with that in terms of quirkiness. I just, I'm just reacting to Eleasha's story. Teeth falling out, there's nightmares about that, but no, I was just going to say something, a little, something that people probably don't know about me. Is that I am an identical twin. 

Val: Wow. 

Dr Jeremy: My brother lives in Canada. And he works in IT and he lives on a farm. 

Val: Okay. 

Dr Jeremy: Yeah, he drives a tractor and bales hay. And Yeah, he feeds his animals and lives a very different life than I do living in central London. 

Eleasha: That's worlds apart.

Dr Jeremy: Yeah we're identical, but we're not identical. You're not. 

Val: Is there anything else you want to say about your twin? 

Dr Jeremy: No that's true enough. 

Val: Are you sure? Yeah. Okay. Alright, mine is I'm a little country girl. I moved to London in the eighties. [00:06:00] Now in London, I didn't realize how you did the buses, that you stick your hand out and all this and that, and no one told me. And I'll be standing at a bus stop expecting every single bus to stop so I'm thinking, why isn't the bus that I want stopping? It was just driving by. Huh. And then, ugh. It was a while and someone came up to me and said are you okay? And I said, yeah, but my bus, keeps driving by, it won't stop. I wanted that bus. ~And ~the lady said, oh. You're not from here. I said, no, I'm not. She said, you're supposed to stick out your hand. Oh, I and then I did that and the bus stopped. 


Val: So [00:07:00] Alicia, thank you for joining us today. 

Eleasha: No problem. 

Val: We'd like to ask the question, what's your story? 

Eleasha: My name is Elisha Ajadi. Huh. I was born and raised in London, South West London, and I'm an only child, and I have quite a, I feel like I had quite a normal, regular upbringing, went to a good school, and I went to an all girls secondary school, And I went to college and did an access course because I wanted to go to university.

Val: What did you study? 

Eleasha: It was so long ago, I can't even remember, I think it was access to digital media. I think that's what it was. Okay. So that access course was like one year, because obviously most people do A levels and they go to Yeah.

Eleasha: I didn't do A Levels because, we'll get into this later on, but my health was just so bad. I couldn't do A Levels and I had to repeat my PCSEs at college. So I was [00:08:00] always delayed in life. I was always behind my friends. Yeah. But I didn't let that stop me. I still kept plodding on. I just had to find alternative routes.

Eleasha: So instead of doing A Levels, I chose to do an Access course. The Access course took one year to complete. I did it, and then I was able to go to university. ~I went, ~I got into Brunel University, which is in Uxbridge, in the middle of the state. Okay. I lived on campus for three years. 

Val: What did you study there?

Eleasha: I studied oh my God. Elisha! No! Multimedia technology and design. Oh my God. You don't look old, girl. You don't. I look young, because I don't crash, which is cool. But, I'm getting on, clearly, my memory. So yeah, I ended up completing my degree, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science.

Eleasha: That was, [00:09:00] sounds quite sad to be honest, but up till now, I would say that those were the three best years of my life. Okay. Because it was a different environment. I was living on campus. Yeah. I was all by myself. I was surrounded by thousands of students. This was the first time I discovered alcohol, smoking.

Eleasha: ~Really? ~All the bad things that you're not meant to do. But that was the first time I'd experienced that stuff. Dating boys and things like that. ~Yeah. ~Yeah, it was the best experience. I've had to date, and I'm so grateful that I had that experience. I had such a wonderful student life. That's good.

Eleasha: It was so good. And then, obviously, I graduated, and then life went downhill. Then I had to go into the real world, and I had to get a real job. Yeah. And that was, oh, honestly I feel like that's when I really started getting down ~to be honest ~because obviously if you have a degree [00:10:00] society tells you get a job and everyone around me had a job ~like my mom works or my friend works so ~I just assumed this is what we do as adults.

Eleasha: I didn't realize how having a job actually is, and especially in corporate Britain, all the office politics, all the racial, incidences, all the sexism, all are horrendous. It was awful. ~Like I just, ~I hated working. I didn't want to get up in the mornings. I dreaded Sundays.

Val: Was it the work you hated or the environment that you worked in? 

Eleasha: The enviroment 

Val: The environment. So you loved your work. So what work was it? What did you do? 

Eleasha: I was an SEO manager. Okay. I was an SEO executive first. That was my first role. And then obviously I worked my way up. Huh. I wouldn't even go as far to say I loved my job, because I didn't love my job. It was okay, I plodded through it, but I feel like the environment, because every time I said to people, oh, I don't like [00:11:00] this job, or I hate my job, they would say just get a new job. But the thing is, when I would change jobs, nothing would change. It was still the same BS, right? It was still politics, it was still ~You know, ~you're the only black woman in the whole team. And it was always the same. It was just horrendous, to be honest. And I just felt like I just suffered for years and years because I thought that was what you were meant to do. No one else seemed to complain. I felt like I was the only person complaining.

Eleasha: To get on with it, which I couldn't understand. Like, how are you guys? Living like this five days a week. It was a soul crushing for me. And I think my turnaround point, because I was depressed for many years. 

Val: Let's go back a minute. What year did you start work? 

Eleasha: I graduated in 2010. Yeah. But at that time, I was still messing around.

Eleasha: I still didn't really know what I wanted to [00:12:00] do. Yeah. So I was actually club promoting in Mayfair. That was cash in hand. So I was having the best time of my life. I was meeting celebrities. I was on private tables, drinking Grey Goose and Belvedere. I was having the best time of my life at that point.

Eleasha: That was in 2011. I remember cause that was the royal wedding. And then 2012, I realized, okay, I can't be a club promoter for the rest of my life. I probably have to get a real job now. 2012 was when I entered the corporate world. From 2012, I would say to 2017, I was just working hated every job I had. Hated every manager I had. Just hated everything. 

Eleasha: And then 2018, something turned around for me. ~I~ I went on to TaskRabbit. You know that app? 

Val: Yes, I use it. ~Yeah, ~

Eleasha: I went on to TaskRabbit and I was working on TaskRabbit for the whole year of 2017.

Eleasha: Okay. [00:13:00] I was doing Everything and anything. I was going to houses in Wimbledon, ironing men's shirts. Really? I was there. I was washing up dishes. I was looking after pets like rabbits and dogs. ~Okay. ~I was doing anything to get a bit of money. ~Yeah. So ~I was doing that for about a year. ~And ~I remember one client, I was in his house ~and I was ~helping to organize his kitchen.

Eleasha: ~And ~he was interested to know more about me because he couldn't understand why I was a young woman doing this job. ~Yeah. ~He was like, I don't get it. You seem very well educated, like why are you doing this? ~And ~I said, ~yeah, ~I have a degree, like my actual trade is digital marketing. And then ~that's when ~he was like, are you serious?

Eleasha: I was like, yeah, he was like, you could be earning money. And I was like not really, because I've been doing this for many years. And I've been, I struggled into even hit 30k. Yeah, I wasn't earning good money. And he was like, no, you're doing it wrong, like you're working for these companies as a full time employee.

Eleasha: Yeah. That's not how you earn [00:14:00] money. What you have to do is you have to contract your services as an outside job. I didn't know this. So he was telling me, what I needed to do, when I finished that job, I was like, ~Oh, ~maybe I should actually try this in CV, if anything comes of it.

Eleasha: So I, we did my CV and I. Pull it onto all the job sites. And I said, looking for contract work in a few weeks, I was getting calls from recruiters saying, Oh, ~I bought this contract, ~I bought this contract, temporary six month contract, ~blah, blah, blah. ~It was a whole new world for me. I got the contracts.

Eleasha: ~I got ~the jobs. And I swear from that moment, this was beginning of 2018, my life just transformed. I was earning so much money. I've never seen this type of money in my life because I have a day rate now. Yeah. And then I had to, open a limited company ~on Companies House. ~Yeah. And I had to hire an accountant to pass my taxes. I was earning so much money, ~and I, it was, ~it's like my life changed overnight. I felt good. This was the first time I was like, ~actually, ~I don't have an issue going to work now, because now I feel like I'm [00:15:00] valued

Eleasha: so at that point, beginning of 2020, I didn't have a contract ~at that point ~and I was looking for work. Now. Yeah. I do remember having an interview for a potential contract but ~that ~this man was having a laugh. ~He wanted me in the interview process ~he wanted me to do so many like projections quarterly projections and he thought this little job I was like you know what this man is having a laugh because I had so much with contracts now I know what I'm going to do like I'm you know yeah the way he would interviewing me, all the steps, it was like he was hiring for a full time position.

Eleasha: Okay. Yeah, it wasn't like he was hiring for contractors. It was very odd. He was expecting way too much for that position. So I decided not to go forward with it. And then after that's when lockdown happened. And I ~just ~couldn't, there was no jobs. There was nothing at that point. So there was nothing I could [00:16:00] do.

Eleasha: ~So ~luckily I had a good amount of savings that I could live off for a while. ~But yeah, ~at that point, ~that's, When ~I felt a bit lost because I was like, Oh, as much as I love contracting, it's so unstable and times like this now there's nothing for me now because companies are furloughing people, ~blah, blah, blah.~

Eleasha: They're not looking to hire any contractors. So my mom was like, Oh, Alicia, why don't you set up your own marketing agency. Now, I didn't really want to do this because. ~As I said, I'm not, ~I've never been in love with my job. I don't really want to be setting up an SEO company or marketing company and having clients.

Eleasha: I never liked the idea of it, but ~because I, ~because my experience was that and I was getting desperate for income, I thought, ~okay,~ maybe my mom's right. Maybe I should try it. ~Oh, ~I spent time developing a website. ~I was, ~trying to market [00:17:00] myself and putting myself on ~to. ~job sites ~and ~contacting recruiters and seeing things like that.

Eleasha: And then towards the end of 2020, I actually did manage to get a client, my first client, which was some mushroom company. And even though it should have been a joyous moment, it wasn't because the amount of work this man was expecting from me. Wasn't equal to the pain that he was offering me. Yeah.

Eleasha: For me to execute this work I would have had to hire other people externally, like translators. To translate that certain webpages on his website and it honestly, nothing just made sense because the money wasn't mapping the math wasn't my stress level. It was just, I was like, Oh my God, this is too much because previously I'm, I have help in the office, right?

Eleasha: I have team members. ~I have now, ~it was just me. Yeah. So this was just way too much stress, the money wasn't really worth [00:18:00] it, and then at this point my friend came over to my house and ~my friend ~was like Elisha I think I found something for us and I was like oh what now because me and my friend were always going over new business ideas or what we can do ~and blah blah blah ~and she was like Elisha there's this thing called Forex you I think we should start trading the financial markets.

Eleasha: And I was like, ~ki ~I don't know nothing about finance or the financial markets. ~I don't, I ~do, I have to go to university to study this. And ~he, ~she was like, no. There's people online that can teach us. There's, YouTubers and Instagram. ~Yeah. ~

At this time I had my company that I was launching and I was like, you know what, I've spent so many months doing this. Let me just focus on this and then maybe I'll think about this Forex thing like maybe next year, maybe 2021 or something. Honestly, I had so much stress from this client, my first client.

Eleasha: I said to myself, Elisha, I'm not doing this no more. I'm going to do Forex. Yeah. I just said like that. I was like, I don't [00:19:00] want to run a marketing agency. ~This is, I never wanted to do this, it's just ~my mum told me to do it. And I just terminated the contract. I just emailed her. Wow. I'm not doing that.

Eleasha: Sorry. Unfortunately, blah, blah, blah. This has happened. Yeah. I had to terminate the contract. 

Dr Jeremy: This was in the context of, COVID lockdown and started this company, but it was a lot more work. Yeah. And ~so you're, ~you just thought, I don't wanna do this. 

Eleasha: I don't wanna do this.

Eleasha: You've gone into foreign exchange. Yeah. 

Dr Jeremy: And that was going well for a while, or 

Eleasha: no. Foreign exchange never goes well. 

Dr Jeremy: I remember when you and I first met you were learning to do this, I think you had some good days and bad days,

Eleasha: like every day in the foreign basically, I what I did is ~I was ~just learning from YouTubers and Instagrammers and I was depositing money into my broker ~and ~I was just losing money ~and Oh, ~it was horrible. I was just, I remember one time I deposited 500. I lost it in like an hour. Wow. It was horrible. I was just losing money every single day.

Dr Jeremy: So there's definitely [00:20:00] some risk, right? 

Eleasha: Oh, risk is an understatement. In Forex you, I want to be honest, you don't make anything, you just constantly bleed money, because you have to remember, you have to get time experience in the markets, and you can't really get experience in the markets trading demo accounts.

Eleasha: People will say, just trade demo, but demo doesn't have the same impact on your psychology as real money. So ~you can't, ~you're not really learning anything with demo. You're better off depositing a few hundred pound, trading that with small risk. And that's how you get your experience. ~So ~I was doing this for about what a year and a half.

Eleasha: And just losing money constantly. And I said, Eleasha if you want to do this seriously, ~I think ~you have to invest money into some real education. So 2022 now, ~Oh, and ~I managed to find another contract because I realized Forex is bleeding my money. So I need some money coming in. So 2022, I had a contract.

Eleasha: I was working from home because this is still in a pandemic. [00:21:00] At this point, 2022, I was working from home and I found a young boy, he was only 21.

Eleasha: I found this young boy online on Instagram and he was a forex trader ~and ~at this time, I think he was making about 5, 000 a week trading. And I thought, oh my God, I was literally in awe of him. I was like, oh my God, this man's amazing. I wonder if he can teach me like how to trade. So I contacted him and I said, ~listen, ~I really want to learn how to trade.

Eleasha: Can you teach me your strategy? Perfect timing. I'm about to launch my very first course just bear with me for a few weeks and I'm gonna contact you. A few weeks went by and he contacted me and said, apply for my new course. It was like a bootcamp. So it was live. Basically it was like live coaching sessions every single day.

Val: I know those. 

Eleasha: In Miami, right? And I live in London. These sessions are like 1am in the morning. So I had to change my [00:22:00] whole schedule and I was working full time at this point. ~I had to change my whole schedule. ~I had to sleep in the evenings and ~I had to ~set my alarm and wait. I had to be awake all night for these coaching sessions.

Eleasha: In the morning, then I had to wake up at 7:00 AM and go to work. , it was really hard. 

Val: Did you have to pay for the sessions? 

Eleasha: Yeah. 2,000 Pounds. You are joking. Thousand pound. But I knew, I was like, this is, it's gonna be worth it. Let me just do it. . And that's another thing with Forex, it desensitizes you to money.

Eleasha: So you start losing the value of money because it you lose so much money. You are like, what's another two grand? What's another five grand? What's another ten grand? Really? Yeah, you become completely desensitized. So I was with him every night. We were doing zoom calls. He was teaching me and it was great.

Eleasha: It was a great experience, but I think I had quite false expectations because I thought I was just going to do it and then I'd earn money. It didn't work like that. I [00:23:00] was still losing money. It was still a bad time. But that's to be expected. He told us, look, I didn't start earning money until four or five years in you can't just earn money. 

I was still losing money. I was working. So it wasn't that bad. But it was depressing. And then 2023 came. I'm trying to think 2023. I was still losing money in 2023. 

Val: I'm so sorry. 

Eleasha: I had health problems as Jeremy knows. Yeah. I was still losing money. I think the change happened in January 2024.

Eleasha: That's how long this journey has taken. In January 2024, I finally earned 10k. And I was like, oh my god, this is real. This was the first time I've actually earned money from the foreign exchange market, and I was doing it through plop firms. It wasn't my own money. So basically a plop firm is, you take an [00:24:00] exam, they give you an exam and you have to prove to them that you're a good trader.

Eleasha: If you prove to them that you're a good trader, they give you money. So this company that I found gave me 100, 000. I traded their capital and then you get to keep 80 percent of the profits that you make. ~That sounds good. ~This was the first time I had a prop firm account and I was making money ~and ~I made 10k and I didn't even think it was real.

Eleasha: I was like, are they actually going to pay me this money? Because you hear horror stories that I made money, but then they denied my payout and they didn't pay me, ~blah, blah, blah. ~So when I actually got the money into my bank account, I was like ~rawr, ~this thing is real, the foreign exchange market is real.

Eleasha: It's not a scam like I started earning money and then the company banned me because I was making too much money 

Val: Oh so it is a scam 

Eleasha: yeah. So something wasn't right. I was like, what's going on? I'm finally earning [00:25:00] money. Then I got an email saying, we believe someone is trading on your behalf. You're doing account management services.

Eleasha: ~And ~I was like, what? I've never, I don't even know what account management is. Like they're basically saying that I'm buying someone to trade on my behalf. And I was like, what? This doesn't even make sense. They banned me from the platform, they banned me from their discord community.

Eleasha: A few months later, and I remember because March is my birthday, it was in March, the whole company went bankrupt. And I said, yes, ~this is what, ~when you mess with the Duchess, ~this is what happens, ~that's what happens to you. Wow. So the whole company went bankrupt, I had a lucky escape

Eleasha: so as you guys may or may not know, I was born with sickle cell anemia, which is a genetic condition.

Eleasha: Both of my parents were the carriers of the illness. That's why I got the full blown disease. Sickle cell anemia is a genetic blood condition, and it basically means that my red blood cells they're [00:26:00] irregular shaped, so they're shaped as a sickle cell.

Eleasha: Like a half, like a crescent moon. ~Yeah. ~Which means that Sometimes they get stuck in my joints, like my elbows, or my knees, or, and they get what was that word, the term, con, congealed, or they get. Yeah, they get clogged. 

Dr Jeremy: They get stuck in small blood vessels, right? So for you, how often did this happen, that you had these bouts of symptoms?

Eleasha: Throughout my childhood, I was very sick, actually. I just remember a lot of times being in pediatric hospital. My hospital at the time was Chelsea and Westminster. ~And I just remember, if I'm honest, ~most of my childhood memories, I just remember being in the back of my mom's car, like half dead, like that, when she's rushing me to the hospital. 

So throughout my childhood, I was always in hospital, ~I was ~missing a lot of school, ~but ~that was primary school, it didn't really impact me ~in primary school. ~When it got to secondary school, that's when it had a big impact.

Eleasha: Because that's when you're missing a lot of real important [00:27:00] education. 

Val: Always trying to play catch up. 

Eleasha: Yeah, and I'm always trying to play catch up, exactly. I remember, sometimes my friends would come visit me in hospital and bring me, homework and things like that. ~And ~it was just a lot to deal with.

Eleasha: When you're in paediatric, they have a school inside the paediatric ward. So a lot of the times I attended the children's school. Which was nice because you got to interact with other kids and talk to teachers and learn some new stuff. But hospital school isn't like normal school.

Eleasha: It's not. No. Yeah, the curriculum is not. So you're still behind. 

Dr Jeremy: But that was childhood. But I guess as you got older, things got better. 

Eleasha: No, actually,

Dr Jeremy: from an illness standpoint. 

Eleasha: No, it got worse. It affected my GCSEs, so basically I failed pretty much the majority of my GCSEs. I got the main ones, but a lot of the rest I failed. So what happened was, obviously with the school at 16, at [00:28:00] 17 I went to college, Kingston College actually, and I had to re sit all my GCSEs ~at college. So that, ~I was already a year behind. In that instance so once I passed Lowe's when I was 17, then I don't know what I'll think I was messing around for a bit because I didn't really know what I wanted to do.

Eleasha: And my health was still quite bad at that time. So I wasn't doing the access course ~then ~I was doing ~little ~other courses ~and ~my mom's always heavily involved with everything I do because my mom's always trying to figure things out. Yeah. Perspective. So my mum, when I was at that time, she wanted me to be a legal secretary.

Eleasha: Because she was like it's less stress, she just wanted me to be in a warm office where I could ~just ~sit on a computer and ~just ~do admin. 

Eleasha: Your health is the priority. I don't care about you earning money and blah, blah, blah, because you live at home anyway. So why do you need to earn money? ~So ~just do something simple that is not [00:29:00] stressful and something that's warm to keep you healthy. ~So ~I remember I enrolled into a legal secretary course. 

I hated it. 

Val: Oh God. Another thing you hated. 

Eleasha: It was so boring. It was full of women trying to be the admin secretaries. I just remember a lot of the women were wearing really risque outfits as well. ~I was like what is this? ~I was actually confused. ~I was like, what is this?~ 

Val: So at that time, if somebody had asked you what was it you wanted to do, what would be your response? 

Eleasha: To be honest, I didn't even know myself at that point. 

Val: You didn't know? 

Eleasha: No, because I was quite creative in my head, I wanted to be an actress.

Eleasha: Nothing wrong with that. And actually, I do remember I went to this little after school acting club called First Steps in Fulham. It's where they went to that same acting school. And a lot of the Harry Potter stars Went to that same acting school as well.

Eleasha: In [00:30:00] my head, I was like, ~Ooh, ~I wouldn't mind trying acting, blah, blah, blah, but I never really pursued it or anything. At that time, I was like, 18 years old. I genuinely didn't even know what to do, because my life at that point was just hospital. I remember going to Alton Towers with my friend, ~and, I ~it's a long story, but She basically ended up leaving because she at that point she was really controlled by her boyfriend.

Eleasha: She ended up leaving and I was stranded in Alton Towers by myself. 

Val: Oh no. 

Dr Jeremy: But I guess I would just listening to you talk about all the things that you've been doing. It seems you were ~You're ~very ambitious and articulate, intelligent all through this, you've got this illness and in some ways it's holding you back as you're missing out on school.

Eleasha: Yeah. 

Dr Jeremy: And you're getting directed into certain kinds of careers that are maybe safe, like a nice warm office. It's not going to trigger any symptoms, but it's not really a good fit for you. No. And so you're looking for something to do you're trying to do this. 

Eleasha: [00:31:00] Yeah. And at that time, I just didn't really know what I wanted to do because I was always in the hospital and. My mom, she had a good point. She was like, you need to be somewhere warm ~and blah, blah, blah. ~But I didn't end up finishing that legal secretary course. I left after a few months because I knew it wasn't the time for me. I didn't enjoy it. 

Dr Jeremy: I'm actually surprised to hear you say, I didn't recall how much you've been in hospital because my impression from you is You don't really come into hospital very much.

Eleasha: Now I don't really come into hospital. Now I don't. 

Dr Jeremy: So what changed? 

Eleasha: What happened was I was 18 at that time. I was still focusing on my education. And I remember at some point I don't know, I must have been like 19 at this point. I saw everyone going to university. I think this is what changed. I saw all my friends going to university.

Eleasha: One of them went to Brighton Uni, one of them went to Roehampton, one of them went to King's. So this is why I say your environment plays a big part. ~So ~I saw all my [00:32:00] friends going to uni, and I was like I want to go to uni. At that point, I didn't even think I could ever go to university. I didn't think that was an option for me. At that point ~Why? ~

Val: Why didn't you think? 

Eleasha: Because I, obviously, I lacked the GCSEs. I knew I couldn't really do A levels. ~Okay. ~So I, I never thought that was ever going to be an option for me. But it wasn't until I saw all my friends going to uni, I started really researching, what would I have to do to be able to get into university?

Eleasha: I wonder if there's a way that I could do it. And then I found out about this thing called Access Course. . And it says, this is an alternative route to universities. Usually older adults will do access courses. . So that's when I applied for my access course and I got in and I remember it was City and Islington College.

Eleasha: So at the time I was driving to college every day, trying to do this access course, but I was still really ill. My, I was still missing a lot because I was always admitted into hospital, Chelsea was admitted to hospital, getting sick [00:33:00] with crisis. So I think what it was is that I managed to complete the course and then I actually managed to get into Brunel University.

Eleasha: ~So I think ~at this point I was 20 years old. I got into Brunel and it was the worst year of my life. Because what happened was I was so sick. I remember they had to call ambulances to come onto campus. ~Now ~it's embarrassing ~that ~to be a student and then an ambulance has to rock up to your dorm and escort you out.

Eleasha: It's embarrassing. I didn't know that at all. But the thing is I still even though I knew I was sick, I still didn't. See an issue. I just assumed I had to live my life like this. I again, it's your environment. I've got This is just how my life is, right? That's what I see in my head. 

Val: Did you disclose to your friends and , the uni, that you did have sickle cell?

Eleasha: Yeah, the uni knew I had sickle, and my friends [00:34:00] knew I had sickle, so that was fine. But I just thought this was my life, this is how I have to live. So it wasn't until, I think it was the end of that first year of uni, so it was like 

Eleasha: I got a letter , to my house saying, unfortunately, you have failed. 

Val: Wow. 

Eleasha: Yeah. Yeah. You failed university. You failed your course. Because I was away so much. I didn't do any of the coursework. I didn't do anything. I didn't sit any exams. Didn't do nothing. So I just remember breaking down onto the floor and crying my eyes out. 

My mom was like, Oh my God, this is terrible. Blah, blah, blah. So this is where my life changed. I spoke to my doctor. I don't even remember how. Chelsea and Wes, and I was like, look, I can't even get through a year of education. I can't even get through a month of anything without going to hospital.

Eleasha: If you saw my records at Chelsea and Wes were like this. ~So ~somehow Chelsea and Westminster referred me to Hammersmith. This was the point, this was the turning point. And they were like, there's a specialised [00:35:00] consultant at Hammersmith . I think we should recommend you, we need to refer you over , they said we need to look into alternative ways to keep you healthier because it's now the point where it's impacting your life.

Eleasha: See, as a child, I don't think they care when you're a child. When you're getting sick ~as a child, ~I just don't think they really care because you don't have a life as a child. But when it's starting to impact your adult life ~Oh, ~

Val: you do have a life as a child. You do. Because you don't want to look back at No, but you don't want to look back at your childhood and just think about hospital beds. We all have a life. But you don't want 

Eleasha: I don't think they value it. Because why wasn't this considered to me? Why wasn't this an option? ~Yeah.~

Dr Jeremy: I'll tell you, I don't work with kids very much at all. But I have to say, I'm just struck by ~the ~honestly, coming into this interview, I

Dr Jeremy: ~yeah. ~What's happened here is that there's so much more to you. Sickle cell are not your whole life. They're just a part of your [00:36:00] life and frankly, a small part. There's so much about you that you want to achieve, that you're trying, that you've been searching for, you've experienced. You've had some failures, but also some successes, right?

Dr Jeremy: And you're still pushing forward. The illness at this point in your life was becoming more of a burden. ~Yeah. ~And that's why you started to make a change, right? 

Eleasha: Yeah, it wasn't even me. I don't feel like I did it. I just felt like my life got so bad that my doctors finally woke up.

Eleasha: My doctors aren't stupid. The doctors saw me laying in the hospital beds every month. So why did you not? Do something back then. Why did it have to get to the point where I had to fail? ~So~

Dr Jeremy: what did they do? They offered you a treatment 

Eleasha: that's when that consultant. said let's try these exchange transfusion programs.

Val: There is a difference in treatment when you go to a specialied centre [00:37:00] than when you just go to a . 

Dr Jeremy: Yeah, and so they started offering you new treatments, so you got on the transfusion program and that was helpful in reducing your crises. 

Eleasha: It didn't just reduce them, I'm going to be honest, it completely stopped them.

Dr Jeremy: It completely stopped them. 

Eleasha: That's when my life turned around. So basically, every eight weeks, I was going to hospital and I was getting blood extracted from myself. I was getting the sickle blood extracted, I was getting new donated blood put in. 

Val: How did your sickle cell manifest itself? Because you said you were in there a lot. Was it chest? Was it strokes? What was it? 

Eleasha: Oh no. I've never had a stroke. My crisis . Would manifest itself usually in my back Yeah. And in my knees. Okay.

Eleasha: That's where I had the majority of my crisis. . I would have a lot of chest infections in between. Yeah. . I remember I went on that [00:38:00] program in 2007, right? 

Val: At what age were you there? 

Eleasha: I think I was 20. So for 2007, I got put on the exchange program. Restarted university. So I had to go back to year one again. And you know what, as you said Val, everything happens for a reason. I'm so happy that , they made me start again from scratch. I made my best friends for life. I still have those friends now in my life I went into a new dorm room, like new environment, met a whole new people and just had the best three years of my life. 

Val: And your energy was different.

Eleasha: Yeah, my energy was different. I was doing different experiences. It was the best. So from 2007. Up until 2016, I was crisis free. I never had anything Jeremy never even saw me ~ever. No. I was crisis free. ~I never went into hospital. This was the time I was working [00:39:00] at Farfetch, the fashion company, and I had the racial experience. For me to have a crisis, something extreme has to happen in my life. So that experience from work, combined with what happened, I went to visit my friend in Rickmansworth. I went to her house, and this woman didn't believe in putting on the heating.

Eleasha: It was a cold house. I was staying at her house overnight, and I woke up in the most horrendous pain. So that was that one of the first crisis that I had. 

Val: Do you want to explain why you need heat? 

Eleasha: So I need heat just because my body is ~so ~sensitive to the cold weather and the cold weather can trigger a crisis.

Eleasha: ~Yeah. So ~sicklers, ~we ~always need to be kept warm, which is why my mum wanted me to work in a nice warm office. 

Dr Jeremy: Nice warm building, 

Eleasha: I remember having a crisis in her house. It was very memorable because obviously I hadn't had a crisis in so many years. I just got so sick, they had to call an [00:40:00] ambulance. ~Also, ~thank God I live in South West London because she lives in the sticks in Wigmansworth. This ambulance took so long to come that my mum drove from South West London to Rickmansworth faster than the ambulance.

Dr Jeremy: Eleasha, forgive me if we're skipping over something, but I had the sense that, your sickle symptoms were managed with the red cell exchange and you were doing really well, 

Dr Jeremy: but then leading up to this period you were having more crises more frequently.

Eleasha: And then my health got back to normal, I was fine, I was doing TaskRabbit, and then I started contracting, my health was fine, had no problems whatsoever. And then 2023, this was the year I met Jeremy.

Val: Are we still in COVID? 

Eleasha: We're still in COVID. At this point, I'm learning how to trade Forex. I don't have a job at this point. So summer of 2023, I woke up in a lot of pain. At home I remember my mum called in the ambulance, and ~I remember ~I was screaming in the hospital, in the [00:41:00] RHTU, like, when I have a crisis I don't scream the place down ~we knew, ~me and my mum knew ~there was something, ~it was something different.

Dr Jeremy: Something's wrong, 

Eleasha: yeah. I was in so much pain, even the nurses were like, oh even they couldn't believe how much noise I was making. Long story short, I got admitted into the wards. And they concluded that I had a fat embolism, 

Val: which is,

Dr Jeremy: A fat embolism is a complication from sickle cell disease. And so for listeners who don't know, so your blood cells are made in your bone marrow. ~And when ~one of the complications of having sickle cell is that some bone marrow can get push it into the bloodstream. It's fatty. And so that travels through the bloodstream and it can block small blood vessels, especially in the lungs. It can stop the oxygen transfer of your lungs. Basically, when people have this, it's very serious. You have to come to hospital immediately to get treated because it basically can cause you to [00:42:00] suffocate. You can die from respiratory failure. So it's probably the main reason that people with sickle cell can die suddenly. When you hear about young people dying from sickle cell, it's very often something like this where there's a complication affecting the lungs. And people suffocate. And if it's not treated quickly, people can die. So you had a fat embolism? 

Eleasha: I had a fat embolism. And I was in the hospital for quite a while. Yeah, it was just horrendous and because it was it affected my back. And I just couldn't move. I was basically I was immobile. I was debilitated. I couldn't move. And I was really depressed. And this is when they referred me to Jeremy. And I know I came in a few times after the fat embolism as well. Because I just wasn't well, the recovery was so long. It wasn't a regular crisis. I don't get crisis anymore. 

Dr Jeremy: So there was a complication from Sickle, but there was some ongoing [00:43:00] problems you were having that didn't seem like Sickle? 

Eleasha: I just woke up one night in bed and I, as you said, You can suffocate, right? And I know my chest just felt really tight that night. My chest felt tight and I was in a lot of pain. But yeah, that was So I was having complications at that point. ~And ~I know I came back to hospital after the fat embolism with arm pain.

Eleasha: So this is where everything So I was getting really bad arm pain and I didn't really know if this was a sickle crisis. ~I didn't know what it was, but ~my mom was like, she needs an MRI scan because something was not right. So I had an MRI scan in, I think it was July, 2023. I didn't hear anything back from the hospital.

Eleasha: So I ~just ~assumed that MRI was fine. I got into a small crisis in October 2023. I can't remember what that was triggered by , but it was just a small [00:44:00] mini crisis.

Dr Jeremy: But that seems different as well, right? Because as you say, you're not somebody who would typically get crises. Because you were treated very well and it was working. Yeah. Something's different, right? 

Eleasha: I don't know what triggered it, I don't know different environment. I can't really remember, but I did go into hospital, it was only for two days. And during this time, I said to my doctor, By the way the MRI that I had back in the summer, were there any results from that?

Eleasha: Because nobody told me anything. So she looked on the system, she looked on the notes, and she said, Oh, they found a lump in your armpit. And I was like, okay, the MRI showed a lump. So she examined me, but she claimed that she couldn't feel nothing on me when she examined me. She said, Oh, you're fine.

Eleasha: So I remember the next day my mum came to visit me. She was helping me change in the hospital. ~So ~when I was ~like ~lifting my arms ~and stuff, ~I think my mum felt something ~and ~she was like, Oh no, [00:45:00] I can feel something. ~And ~I said, just examine me yesterday. ~And she said, ~she couldn't feel anything. So ~then ~we requested the doctor to come back, re examine me, and then she did feel something the second time.

Eleasha: Oh. At that point, she said, don't worry, there's probably nothing to worry about. I think what did, there was a, sorry, there was a conclusion that they thought it would be What was it? A lymph node? Yeah, under your armpit. 

Dr Jeremy: That's where a lot of your lymph nodes are.

Eleasha: Because I was so sick from the fat embolism. That it's normal to have enlarged nymph nodes, because that was the year I was really sick. 

Dr Jeremy: Yeah, it can be, yeah. ~Yeah, ~

Eleasha: so she was like, don't worry, I don't think it's anything, to worry about. It's probably just a natural thing from being sick. So at this point she referred me to Breast Services. This was at Charing Cross Hospital, ~all over the place, all over these hospitals. So ~I went there, I got a mammogram. They did a mammogram, they did a [00:46:00] biopsy, and even the doctor then said, To be honest, I've looked at your notes, you've been really sick this year, so it's probably just a lymph node from the sickness, so don't worry, they kept telling me not to worry about anything, so I thought, okay, that's fine.

Val: And the more they tell you not to worry You worry?

Eleasha: Yeah. I've gone through so much at this point. I actually wasn't worried. 

Val: Was your mum worried? 

Eleasha: I don't think my mum was worried either. Like me and my mum, we're honestly, we're soldiers. So we weren't really worried at this point. Cause I'm so used to being sick that I just thought, oh, it's nothing to me.

Val: I know you're used to being sick, but because you said it was something different. Do you see what I mean? 

Eleasha: The fat embolism was the difference. 

Val: Ah okay. 

Eleasha: Yeah, this was just, because I wasn't in pain with this was just a lump. ~Okay. ~It wasn't really anything to really be concerned with.[00:47:00] 

Eleasha: I wasn't in pain, I was feeling fit, I was feeling healthy. And that's another thing, the doctors kept saying you're fit and healthy, like

Val: wow. 

Eleasha: Nothing to worry about. 

Val: Okay. 

Eleasha: We were at home. I said to the doctor, When can I expect the results from the biopsy? And she said, you'll get it, what did they say?

Eleasha: They said they'll contact me for an appointment. I got a text message saying we've scheduled your appointment for such and such date. I remember I was in the living room. watching TV and a letter got posted through our letterbox and this was at night and you know the postman doesn't come to your house at night. 

Dr Jeremy: Yes. 

Eleasha: My mum came downstairs, she was like, ~oh Elisha, ~there's a letter for you and I said, that's weird. This was like eight o'clock at night. That's weird. Open the letter, it was from a hospital and the letter had no stamp on it.

Val: No stamp. Yeah. 

Eleasha: So that means it was a courier. They sent a courier to my house. 

Val: Yeah. 

Eleasha: And then when I opened the letter, they were like, your appointment has been scheduled for tomorrow morning. 

Val: Ah, that's how [00:48:00] urgent it was. 

Eleasha: That's when me and my mum were like, something's wrong. 

Val: Yeah. 

Eleasha: They've never done this ever before. The next day came, we got ready, we went to the hospital, and this is when the doctor was like, Alicia, we can't confirm anything right now, but I can confirm that there is something wrong with you. 

Eleasha: I want to schedule surgery for you because I want to remove the lymph node and we have to, I want to dissect the lymph node because there's something very irregular with it. 

Dr Jeremy: Okay. 

Eleasha: We can't tell from the biopsy because the biopsy was inconclusive. So she was like, I want to schedule this surgery ASAP because we have to get to the root of it. So they scheduled the surgery for December. So this all started in October and then the surgery was the 4th of December or the 5th of December For me to have surgery. This is a whole nother ballgame because I can't just have surgery like that Yeah, I don't have [00:49:00] access because all the years are going into hospital All my veins I could say, I guess you could say collapsed or 

Val: shot to pieces.

Dr Jeremy: So the experience with illness previously has complicated treatment for this. Whatever this is. 

Eleasha: Treatment for any type of surgery. It's really complex. So even they kept on. Like, how's she gonna have this, how's she gonna get the general anaesthetic, so I remember the doctors kept trying to rearrange what type of line I could have, because I thought I could just have a femoral line, because when I get my ~X trans ~transfusions, I usually get a femoral line, ~and ~for people who don't know what that is, a femoral line is inserted into your groin, so you have this large artery that runs through your groin, and that's where they insert the line.

Eleasha: every six weeks. So I can get my blood. So I thought I was just going to get a femoral line, but the issue is the doctors were like, you can't get a femoral line because you can't go home with a femoral [00:50:00] line. So they gave me an alternative central line. Yeah. Oh, it was such a complicated so they said to me, what you need to get, you need to get a midline.

Eleasha: So I had to come to hospital like two days before the surgery. A specialized nurse, ~they ~had to put a midline in my arm. I've still got the scar here. So that's an insert in the midline. dress it all up, bandage it up, and I had to go home with this line in my arm. And I had never been at home with something inside my body before.

Eleasha: It was a very different experience for me. It was so complex, because even lying in bed, you have to lie like this with your arm like that. It was horrible. I went to Charring Cross Hospital two days later, got the surgery, the surgeon removed the lymph node from my armpit, and then it was just a waiting game, I just had to wait for these results.

Eleasha: And I kept contacting my doctor, and then [00:51:00] my doctor kept calling me saying, I'm so sorry, but it's still inconclusive, because they just didn't know, and they kept on eliminating other diseases, because at one point we thought, is it lupus? Or is it this? Or is it that? Honestly, everything was running through my mind.

Eleasha: I thought, do I have HIV? What is it? There's something wrong with me. But they didn't know what it was. ~Yeah. So ~

Val: at this stage, was it only the haematology team involved? 

Eleasha: It was the haematology and the oncology. Okay. Yeah, they got the oncology team involved. But even, it was still inconclusive.

Eleasha: You have to remember this is Christmas now. I'm spending my Christmas not knowing something's wrong with me, but 

Val: not knowing what it is.

Eleasha: So I think the second week of January comes, right? I start earning all this money. I'm like, yeah, ~I'm that girl. ~I'm earning this money. I'm drinking my mum for 200 lunches in [00:52:00] Mayfair.

Eleasha: I'm doing all this. ~And then ~I remember it was Tuesday. I got an email from the company, the platform that I was working with, saying that we're banning you from the. the prop firm, we're banning you from our company because we feel ~like you're ~cheating, you're hiring account management services. So I've got all this pressure in my head, all this stress.

Val: They told you this over the phone?

Eleasha: Over the phone, yeah. ~But ~I didn't mind because I knew, I just wanted them to tell me, to be honest. So I didn't care if it was 

Val: Can I just ask Dr. Jeremy a quick question? I know Alicia's saying that she doesn't care, that she didn't mind. Would you yourself, as a psychologist, recommend somebody get that information over the phone?

Dr Jeremy: Ideally, no, that's the kind of thing you want. 

Val: Because I wouldn't like it. 

Dr Jeremy: I think, in the context of COVID probably a [00:53:00] lot of those conversations happened over the phone or a video call or something. So that's a bit different, but obviously, ideally. Whenever you give someone, obviously it depends on the news. If it's, yeah, it's really bad news. Happily, Alicia's here. She's no, but it doesn't matter. But if the news was like really bad, like you've got this illness and you're going to die, ~no. ~In a place where there is supported as possible. There's a way of breaking bad news to people. 

Val: There is. And I don't, to me, , you're fine with it, but to me, whether it's news that you're going to die now or whatever, that's irrelevant to me. If it's a different illness, cause I'm used to living with my heart disease and my lung disease, that's fine. If I get anything else on top of that, because I say, I can live with what I've got. If I get anything else on top of that, I don't know how I'm going to deal with it, whether it could be something like diabetes. I don't want that told to me over [00:54:00] the phone because I'm already dealing with two illnesses. So I'd rather have that face to face and it may not. And it's just, it doesn't seem a big deal to some people, always diabetes, you won't die. It's just another complication on the other two complications I already have. ~And ~sometimes it takes that small thing to really knock you off your feet. Do you know what I mean?

Dr Jeremy: Absolutely. And that's what Alicia's had , that week. She's dealing with so much stuff. Her life is ~going, it's ~not stopping because she's got an illness. She's coping through all that. Yeah. 

Eleasha: I would just want to put some context behind it. Val, what you're saying is completely right.

Eleasha: You're correct. A normal person in this situation and it should have been a face to face conversation. And I think most of the times when it comes to sensitive topics, ~I think usually ~it is a face to face conversation. ~But I just want to put some context around this. ~This has been [00:55:00] going on since October.

Eleasha: I've been investigated with this since October. This has been an ongoing Some, I knew, I already knew something was wrong with me, I just didn't know what it was. And you have to remember, I was constantly going to hospital. I had no car, so at this point I'm taking the bus. It's January. It's cold. And I'm going to hospital.

Eleasha: I'm going to Hammersmith Hospital constantly. I'm going to Charing I'm back and forth. ~Personally, I didn't mind. At this point, ~I just wanted them to tell me what was going on. I said to my doctor I don't, however you want to tell me whatever the news is, can you just tell me over the phone?

Eleasha: I didn't specifically say that. He called me anyway. But, I didn't mind having that because I spent so much time and energy in the hospital the past few months. Getting my central line, getting my surgery, getting my [00:56:00] scans, the mammogram, the biopsy. It was a lot. So I honestly, getting the news at home was quite comforting.

Eleasha: ~It wasn't that bad. ~And I had my mum next to me and I just put my phone on speakerphone ~and it wasn't that bad. ~It was fine. Yeah. 

Val: So what happened next? 

Eleasha: Okay. So after that I was just speaking to my doctor and he was saying, the first things first is you need access. That's because we can't do anything unless you have access.

Eleasha: And we were discussing whether I want a port a calf, whether the Hickman line. ~Oh, it was just so long. And ~I decided to get a Hickman line in the end because the reason behind my choice was the Hickman line is outside of your body. ~Yeah. ~So when you receive your treatment, ~then ~all the nurses have to do is, ~hook up, they just have to ~hook it up and inject whatever they need to inject in straight into the syringe.

Val: Yeah. 

Eleasha: Into the tubes. So you have two tubes hanging out of your chest wall, whereas the vortex part is inside your body and when [00:57:00] the nurses want to access it, they have to put a needle inside it. I just didn't want to be prodded with needles every single week. It was too much, too traumatic. I chose the Hickman line for that reason.

Val: Okay. But it wasn't permanent though. 

Eleasha: It's just for the treatment. That was the first thing. That was in February. I got the diagnosis in January. Then we got the ball rolling in February.

Eleasha: And you know what? I'm so lucky cancer is a horrible thing. I think out of every, out of all the diseases, people dread cancer the most, right? 

Dr Jeremy: Yeah, 

Eleasha: I was so lucky because my cancer treatment was the same section as the hematology as my sickle cell treatment. I was so lucky I could have had a completely different cancer and I could have had to travel. halfway across London to get my treatment. 

Val: [00:58:00] Let's explain that to people that don't know because you go to Hammersmith. 

Eleasha: I go to Hammersmith for my sickle cell treatment or haematology to get my blood transfusions. What I didn't know I didn't know this. So Hammersmith is a center of excellence.

Dr Jeremy: Yeah. 

That's where you get treated, but it's a center of excellence. Or also for cancer. And one thing people don't know is with the inpatient ward, typically hematology and heme oncology are all together. So blood cancer and other blood disorders are on the same ward. ~Yeah. I had, I didn't honestly, my eyes really opened up. ~

Eleasha: I really learned a lot when I got diagnosed with cancer. I didn't know any of these. I was so focused on sickle.

Dr Jeremy: That's something I really wanted to talk to you about is because I think what makes you so unique in that way is that you have this experience with sickle cell. You've been in hospital a lot. You were treated at Hammersmith. [00:59:00] And then you get diagnosed with not just any cancer, but with a blood cancer, so you actually get treated in the same place by the same people. And very often when I talk to people ~that, this split between hematology and hematology, ~we call this red cell versus white cell.

Dr Jeremy: So a red cell disorder, that's hemoglobin, and a white cell disorder, that's white blood cells ~that are. ~That are often related in forms of cancer, like leukemia or lymphoma like you have. So you were, you are a red cell patient still, but now you're being treated for a white cell disorder. 

Eleasha: Yes. 

Dr Jeremy: And I know people imagine that one group gets treated differently than another , As a person who's been through both, what was that like for you?

Eleasha: I've heard a lot of this rhetoric over the past few years from sickle patients in particular, saying, ~oh ~the white cell patients, to be honest, I didn't even know what that meant. I didn't know it meant the cancer patients. I heard a lot of the [01:00:00] talk of the white cell patients get treated so much better than the red cell patients, blah, blah, blah.

Dr Jeremy: What do people mean by get treated better? 

Eleasha: I think what they mean is that the staff are probably more attentive to them and maybe more sympathetic towards their issues rather than sickle issues. Yeah. But I had a very different experience with this. Very different. So when you get diagnosed with cancer, you get assigned a CNS nurse.

Eleasha: Yeah, it's a clinical nurse who is meant to help you throughout your journey, . My nurse was, I'm just going to be honest, she was useless. She wasn't very good. She wasn't very helpful. ~She got, ~maybe because she had never looked after someone. with multiple health conditions before, but she was very sloppy at her job and she was very incompetent at her job. When I started having chemotherapy, I'm still having [01:01:00] my blood transfusions, right? Because I still have to have that regardless. 

Val: Yeah. 

Eleasha: So I remember the first blood transfusion I had after having my first session of chemotherapy went completely wrong because what happened was my CNS nurse I don't think she communicated with the sickle nurses and , what happened was they didn't. Request. The radiated blood. Oh, yeah. So it's So it has the wrong blood. 

Dr Jeremy: I think one thing you had mentioned to me before was that in comparison to the other nurses in Red Cell, you find the Red Cell nurses and I think it's important to understand that CNSs are very on top of things.

Dr Jeremy: They communicate very well. If you have a question. Specifically. 

Eleasha: Yes. The red cell nurses are on point. they do their job immaculately I can call

Eleasha: one of my nurses, any time of the day, 9am, whenever, she will always answer the [01:02:00] phone, she will always help me immediately, she won't leave me hanging, she's very competent at her job. 

Dr Jeremy: And so , in comparison, I think we, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we talked about, you said you, you would ask on the cancer side. The nurse a question and you didn't really get an answer. 

Eleasha: No, because the specific incident I'm talking about was the radiated blood. And I remember I called her because you have to remember now this is inconvenience in me and I don't have a car. ~I have no job and I have no car.~

Dr Jeremy: Yeah,

Eleasha: and this is. ~It's ~February, this is in the depth of winter, and I've got sickle cell, so I can't be out on the street, taking buses in February, I'm gonna get sick. This is inconvenienced me, because they've ordered the wrong blood. Now I have to go home. Now I have to come back another day to get my blood transfusion, right? So I, when I get home, the first thing I did, I called my CNS nurse 

Val: what is radiated blood? 

Eleasha: Radiated blood, as far as I'm [01:03:00] aware, it's been exposed to radiation. Because I've had chemotherapy now, and my body has been exposed to radiation. Any blood I receive moving forward, ~even now, ~has to be exposed to radiation. I don't know why, I don't know the science behind it, I don't know if Jeremy knows more. 

Val: So all this changed just because of the cancer. Okay. 

Dr Jeremy: Like with that one, it was a special kind of blood you needed to get. Yes. And I think kind of administrative errors and things can happen anytime. I'm really interested in like, when you were on the board did staff treat you differently? Do you feel like when you were treated as a sickle cell patient versus when you're treated as a cancer patient, did they treat you differently? Did they like the assumption is they're more sympathetic. Were they more attentive? Were they more sympathetic? ~Did they, ~did you get fewer hassles or do they seem to care [01:04:00] more?

Eleasha: I feel like my experience with the CNS nurse and the actual staff nurses on the ward probably was a bit different then. Okay. So when I was on the ward, it wasn't for crisis. I didn't have a crisis throughout my cancer. I was on the ward because I had severe reactions from the chemotherapy.

Eleasha: I did notice that the same nurses who looked after me the previous year for sickle cell crisis. I noticed that they were maybe a bit more sympathetic and more attentive. ~Not, ~I don't think it was because I was a cancer patient. ~I think it was because. ~They just thought, Oh my God, you've got so many things going on with you.

Eleasha: They remember treating me with all my sickle pain and the fat embolism in 2023. And now I'm back again with cancer. ~So it was because you had cancer. Yeah, because if you went back in with sickle cell no, but if I was a normal sickle, ~if I was a normal cancer patient, ~Yeah. ~I think it would have been different.

Eleasha: I think it was the combination because they already knew me. I don't know because 

Val: We already know. Through what [01:05:00] a lot of people say that there are differences in treatment between the red cells and the white cells. So even though you're on the same ward, Yeah.

Val: Despite what you go through, because a lot of sickle cell patients go through a hell of a lot. A lot of white cell patients go through a hell of a lot. So that's regardless. So you're going back now to the Same ward to be treated for your cancer. And I think the difference was, is because it's cancer, because anywhere in this world, you can mention that C word, you can say cancer and everybody they got an idea of what it is.

Val: ~Yeah. ~You don't have to mention what form of cancer it is, but I think everybody empathizes more with cancer than they do with an illness that is quite unknown. ~That's just my thinking. No, ~

Eleasha: in general people on the road yes, 100 percent because everyone knows what cancer is and everyone sympathizes with [01:06:00] cancer.

Eleasha: But in terms of my, the way I was treated and my care in that ward, I genuinely don't think. I think it was because I was a regular cancer patient. I think it was because they had the memories because they kept saying to me, Oh my God, I haven't seen you since 2023. ~That fat imbecile. ~I think it was because of the memories that they had of me screaming down the wards night and day.

Eleasha: Now I'm back a year later with cancer. You couldn't even write that. You literally couldn't make that up. I think that's why they were like, Oh my god I'm so sorry. They really were showing their condolences because they couldn't believe the unbelievable amount of bad luck that I was having. ~I also wonder, I think ~

Dr Jeremy: you mentioned to me once with the treatment from cancer, Your appearance changed.

Eleasha: Yeah, and my 

Dr Jeremy: that affected people. ~So I know it's~

Eleasha: one or two people didn't even recognize me on the ward they didn't even know because [01:07:00] I was completely bald. And because obviously I lost my hair because of the chemotherapy. And so one or two people I know it's been not the nurses, but the. You know the people who serve you the food and the drink?

Eleasha: The hostess. The hostesses. They didn't recognize me. Yeah. Because usually we chat and we laugh and yeah, they just ignored me. Because they didn't know who I was. So I found that quite funny. ~And but yeah, ~everyone was, ~they were ~sympathetic for me, but it was more because They knew what I went through the year prior to that, ~but in terms of the, ~in terms of the care, ~in terms of the nurses, ~not the nurses on the ward, but I'm talking about the CNS nurses. I just think the care was abysmal, if I'm honest, because I remember when they sent me home because they had the wrong blood, I called her and I was like, what's going on? And I remember just silence on the phone, the CNS nurse for my cancer. [01:08:00] She didn't even apologize. She was just silent because she didn't know what to say.

Eleasha: I know my sickle nurses, they don't make mistakes, but I know if they do ~make a mistake, ~they will just apologize and say, I'm sorry. This one didn't. And I just, she was just silent. And I remember cause I put her on speaker phone and my mom was listening and my mom was like making faces like, isn't she going to say anything?

Eleasha: Yeah. So it sounds the difference that you had was like, you did notice staff on the inpatient ward. Had ~a bit ~more sympathy for you and. But then also, things can go wrong, but the nurse that you were dealing with maybe didn't have the social skills to be able to deal with, like, how do you apologize or how do you deal with mistakes or how do you reassure someone that even though this mistake has been made, they're still safe and under, good quality care ~and yeah. ~

Exactly. And from that time, I just didn't contact her again because yeah. People kept [01:09:00] saying if you have any issues, just contact your CNS nurse. What's she going to do? She can't even respond over the phone. It was just useless. In fact, when I had issues with my cancer, I would call my sickle nurses.

Eleasha: And they would sort it out. 

Val: Because you do, need a really good CNS nurse. 

Eleasha: Yeah. And that wasn't even in their job. It wasn't in their job description, but they still helped me. They still sorted it out, any issues I had around chemotherapy and stuff, I just contacted my sickle nurses.

Val: Which is sad because then what that does is, it doesn't pull her up. It doesn't say to her, look, hey, there's a problem here that needs to be sorted. ~Because ~that's her job. ~They've already got their job. Yeah. know what I mean? ~Because I have the same problem with an old CNS nurse. I used to go to Jeremy and you can't really be, doing that. But she was terrible. Yeah. Absolutely awful. And when you've got a [01:10:00] really awful CNS nurse, you're stuck. Because she's that bridge between you getting good treatment and getting hold of your consultant. She's That go between. She's that person that should solve all those things. If you're having issues on the ward or issues whatever it is, she's supposed to be an experienced nurse. 

Eleasha: The days I went to my chemotherapy, everything else was good. It was fine. 

Dr Jeremy: Have you been back on the ward since 

Eleasha: So I had my chemotherapy for six months. Within this time period, I lost all my hair. My hair fell out and literally, I went to my hairdresser's house ~actually, because I thought, let me get her to plait my hair, we'll do something. ~As she was combing it, it was coming out, came out onto the floor, so she ended up getting the razor and she just yeah, shaved it off because that was the best solution. 

In the time I was having my chemotherapy, I had a lot of side effects, ~so ~I experienced a lot of mouth ulcers and then I experienced a lot of vomiting and ~a lot of ~diarrhea. ~A lot of side effects, and ~I would have to go to [01:11:00] RHTU to get, fluids ~and ~potassium and things like that to help me recover.

Eleasha: It was a very intense period because It wasn't just the days I was going into chemotherapy. It was all the side effects that came after chemotherapy. ~It was all like ~the central line, even bathing. It was difficult to bathe and to wash and had to keep everything clean. Even sleeping at night was difficult because I like sleeping on my front and I couldn't it was a lot.

Eleasha: it was even affecting my dreams. I had a dream that my Hitman line, the tubes got stuck in the lift doors. And as the lift went up, me and me, oh, 

Val: don't, I'm so sorry, and ~I remember~

Eleasha: as I was waking up out the dream. My hand was on the line and I was pulling the line out of my chest. I was yanking it. ~In real life. ~Really? Yeah, as I was waking up, I was going like that, and I [01:12:00] didn't realize I was doing it. ~Yeah, I think I, what I would have mentioned is that ~

Dr Jeremy: during REM sleep you're generally paralyzed, right? There's a natural process that prevents you from moving when you're dreaming. Otherwise, everybody would be like, walking out of their house, 

Val: exactly. 

Dr Jeremy: But when people have sleep disorders or. Sometimes when your sleep has been disrupted or you're taking medications and stuff, your sleep, that process gets disrupted.

Dr Jeremy: So people can start doing things they don't normally do sleepwalking or. 

Val: I do that sleep and yeah, I caught myself walking around my room like a duck and I woke myself up and I thought, what am I doing? And I just had to laugh and get back to bed. It's weird the things that you catch yourself doing. 

Dr Jeremy: And yeah, like ~it's. Funny in some instances, but in ~the idea of pulling out a central line in your sleep, that's scary. 

Eleasha: It was very scary. Luckily nothing [01:13:00] happened. It was fine, but it wasn't a good experience. Anyway, June came and I had my final. scan, my PET scan in June. And then I think it was like a week or two later in July, I went to my consultant and we reviewed everything and he said, congratulations, Alicia, you are now cancer free. And you're now in remission. Great. It was, yeah, it was great. It was, the treatment worked perfectly.

Eleasha: . It was good because from the beginning he did say to me, the type of cancer you have, the Hodgkin's lymphoma ~works really well. It ~responds really well to the chemotherapy okay. You should be fine. . ~Yeah. And when I forgot to mention, ~when I was diagnosed at stage two.

Val: Eleasha I see and I hear a very beautiful, young, creative, vibrant, determined [01:14:00] woman in front of me, and that is why we wanted to know you. Thank you for sharing the funny parts. 

Eleasha: Yes. It's been amazing. This is my first time as a guest in a podcast. It's been a great experience. It's been a fun part of my morning. 

Val: You've opened my eyes a lot. You ~really have. And my, ~when I was telling my son, he said, oh, I wanna know. I wanna know more. He goes, but he isn't. He's still in bed, . Thank you. Thank you very much. And please, I know you have a YouTube channel.

Eleasha: Yes, 

Val: because I've taken ~a ~a nose. ~Okay. ~You look gorgeous in that. I saw the one where I think. You had just said you were in remission. Yes. You're on the bed. Yeah. You look lovely. So please tell us what it's called and if you give us the links, we will put that in our description.

Eleasha: Okay. ~So ~my YouTube [01:15:00] channel is called Duchess or Forex, which is I know a very unique name, but my intention was to make it into a Forex channel. To teach women and people of colour trading and things like that. That was my intention behind it, but I still have to work towards actually doing that and making it consistent.

Eleasha: And then my TikTok is the same, it's Duchess of Forex. My Instagram is the same, Duchess of Forex. Okay. My Instagram and my YouTube, you can see more of my cancer journey because I made sure that I wanted to document. some of it like especially physical appearance like how I looked ~you know ~throughout my journey and ~tating like ~having my chemotherapy and things like that so you can if you want to see more of my journey you can see that on instagram and youtube 

Dr Jeremy: Great.

Val: Would you like to leave ~the list, ~the listeners one piece of advice or a comment or something that you've learned throughout your life to now, [01:16:00] everything that you've been through. What's the one piece of advice you would like to share? 

Eleasha: Oh, that's a hard one. 

Val: Sorry, you're on the spot.

Eleasha: God. There's no harm in thinking outside the box. 

Val: Yeah. 

Eleasha: We've all been conditioned to live our lives in a certain way. And if you feel like you don't want to live your life that way, no harm in changing it. Yeah. With every aspect, that's with relationships and with careers. health, 

Val: especially careers.

Eleasha: Yeah. All conditioned to do certain things and live our lives certain ways. But, sometimes you have to unlearn things ~that you've been taught. I think that the ~unlearning process is sometimes a very important step in our lives. And yeah, there's no harm in being different and being outside of the box.

Dr Jeremy: Yeah, that's fantastic. Okay. 

Val: And on that note, 

Dr Jeremy: No disagreement there. 

Val: Thank you [01:17:00] very much for your time. 

Dr Jeremy: so much for coming, Eleasha okay. All right. Bye. Bye. Bye.