Not Just The Patient

Richard Willmore - Make Your Day Richer - and Joelle Kaufman - Kicking Cancer's Ass Transcript

Joelle Kaufman: Welcome to Kicking Cancer's Ass. The podcast for people for whom cancer has touched their lives. 

He was seven years old watching his father navigate his first diagnosis. It was 40 years ago. Now Richard calls himself something of a cancer whisperer. Someone who's been in those sterile hallways, sat in those uncomfortable chairs and learned the unspoken language of treatment centers through decades of experience. Richard understands something most people don't. isn't just about the person with the diagnosis.

It's about everyone in their orbit. Everyone who's been changed by loving someone through it. Richard, welcome to Kicking Cancer's Ass.

Richard Wilmore: Well, thanks for having me on. I'm excited.

Joelle Kaufman: Well, let's get into it. You are an oncology floor graduate. You described yourself as being on the oncology floor since second grade. Most kids that age are learning multiplication tables or reading. You're learning about cancer. How did growing up in cancer's shadow shape your understanding of life?

Richard Wilmore: It kind of felt like reverse Wizard of Oz were like, it went from technicolor to black and white instead.

And, um, I was a kid and I didn't even know what cancer meant or was, or what all went in that. Like I have very vivid memories of very specific chunks of my childhood. Like I remember. My parents coming home, what I was eating when they walked in the door at my grandma's house.

And the crying, like, there was just like an explosion of emotions and I remember crying and thinking, oh, everything's changed. That's what I remember thinking, and I don't know what it is. I don't know what this means, but my entire world has changed and it really, uh, has, it has taught me so many things about life and empathy and courage. There have been many people in my family who have had cancer. My dad was the kind of first one, and that was in 1992. We're in 2025 and he still having surgeries and biopsies and going through it. He's still alive.