Our New Cancer Coach Answers Some Questions About Our Tree of Life Anti-Cancer Lifestyle Community and Programme
We are thrilled to introduce Sacha Mogg, Nutritional Health Coach and specialised Cancer Coach, and part of our expanding team of Cancer Coaches. As part of the Tree of Life Anti-Cancer Lifestyle Community and Programme, Sacha loves empowering and supporting her clients to improve their health and wellbeing by taking a three-sixty approach, focussing not only on food but all aspects of their lives including exercise, relationships, spirituality and career. Sacha was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022, but using a “coach approach” on herself enabled her to cope better than she ever imagined. She now helps others to cope with their cancer diagnosis. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and two teenage children. Sacha practises yoga and enjoys running, walking, books, music, bell ringing, good food, travel and being.
Here, we explore how The Cancer Coach and Tree of Life make a difference, with a thoughtful Q&A with Sacha.
Sacha
Sacha Mogg.
Cancer Coach.
1. What are the challenges facing people with cancer and how does The Cancer Coach and Tree of Life address them?
People with cancer face many physical, emotional and spiritual challenges. They often feel disbelief, are deeply shocked, frightened, angry, overwhelmed, alone and powerless to do anything to help themselves. They can also lose confidence in their life long habits and feel confused about everyday things like what to eat and what cleaning products or skin care products to use at home. They realise they need to make some changes but are confused about just what they need to address. The Cancer Coach and Tree of Life covers all of these things like a trusted, dedicated, knowledgeable and reliable partner, friend or ally, who is able to support and empower them from diagnosis, through treatment, on to recovery and beyond. The key thing is that they can trust the information they are given and stop feeling confused and unsure about everything. There are videos, on-line written content, workbooks and journals to fill in and like-minded other people to connect with. There is also a one-on-one health coaching service, pre-habilitation coaching service, 12-week survivorship programme and caregiver programme offered as additional services. These cover all the things that the medical Multi Disciplinary Team (MDT) does not have time to attend to. However wonderful your MDT is, they are generally just too busy to give the kind of care and attention patients so desperately need in addition to their basic medical treatment. It transforms the patient, person or caregiver from a victim to an empowered person with agency and hope. That is a total game-changer.
2. How does The Cancer Coach and Tree of Life educate the population on cancer prevention and what are the aims?
The Cancer Coach and Tree of Life educate the population on cancer prevention with cutting edge, well sourced and regularly updated research articles, information and practices on lifestyle and diet. They teach everyone about the importance of recognising and managing stress levels, eating a nutritious unprocessed diet, getting regular exercise, good sleep, understanding harmful toxins in our environment, nurturing good gut health, developing and maintaining good meaningful friendships and relationships with family, friends and colleagues, getting clear on core values and living in line with them. The education is provided in order to empower the population to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing in order to do everything they can to prevent a cancer diagnosis and ultimately reduce the amount of people receiving a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime.
3. What features of Tree of Life are most important and who would benefit from using them?
It is hard to single out just a few features that are more important than the others because everything in the Tree of Life is so well thought out and presented. Perhaps the features on how to reduce stress and improve emotional wellbeing, gut health and nutrition would be most important for some people but exercise, sleep and protection from toxins would be key to others. Everyone is bio-individual and no two cancer cases are the same. It has to be said that all these areas are essential in cancer prevention and cancer care during treatment and beyond. The Tree of Life features such as one-on-one Cancer Coaching, one-on-one Pre-Habilitation, the 12 Week Survivorship Programme and the Caregivers programme are much needed extra support for both cancer patients and those supporting those with cancer.
In my own personal experience the Caregivers Programme would have been incredibly useful for my mother, as she found it particularly hard coping with my breast cancer diagnosis and knowing how to support me through my treatment and beyond. Although some of the cancer charities such as “Maggie’s” offer this type of support, it is often daunting to make the first step and go into a centre like this and many just don’t make that first step, despite it being a free service. I think a lot of people feel that they are not deserving enough, frightened about seeing people who are very distressed or ill in there or that their cancer case is not as bad as someone else’s. A lot of caregivers might also think that their needs are not nearly as valid as someone with cancer and so again might shy away from going to a Maggie’s Centre. I think this is probably what stopped my mother seeking help there which is a huge pity.
That said, all of these features are extremely valid and important and offer so much to so many different people who are touched by cancer. The online programme looks extremely comprehensive and seems to be a very useful and valid stand alone product before you even start to look at any of the additional services on offer.
4. What support is currently available for caregivers and what does The Cancer Coach and Tree of Life offer to enhance the level of support?
There are many cancer charities like “Maggie’s”, “Macmillan” and “Breast Cancer Now” for example who offer help to those caring for someone with cancer but it is not nearly as detailed or presented in such an easy to access and interactive format. I am not aware of courses like the one that Tree of Life provides, that offers very easy access or such in-depth, holistic and interactive support. It makes the caregiver realise that they need to be well and take time for themselves in order to be strong enough to support their loved one through cancer.
5. What does Support, Inspire and Empower mean to you?
This is exactly what I aim and hope I do as a nutritional health coach and what I would like to continue trying my best to do as a specialist cancer coach. It is about being empathetic, listening and holding space for clients and then helping them see that they have all the answers inside themselves and that they know what is best for them. It is about letting them lead and encouraging them to have the confidence that they do know what is best deep down and that they can help themselves to make positive sustainable change. It is never about telling clients what to do as this does not empower or enable sustainable habit change.
