Strangers on a Bench - EPISODE 88: Feels Like We're Untouchable

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

Tom Rosenthal approaches a stranger on a park bench and asks if he can sit down next to them and record their conversation.This is what happened! Produced by Tom RosenthalEdited by Rose De LarrabeitiMixed by Mike WoolleyTheme tune by Tom Rosenthal & Lucy Railton Incidental music by Maddie AshmanEnd song : 'To Cairns and Back' by Juni HabelStream it here : https://ffm.to/tocairnsandbackListen to all the end songs featured on the podcast (so far) on one handy playlist :https://ffm.to/soabendsongs————————————————————————————Instagram : @strangersonabench Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, so it to bother you. Can I ask you a slightly odd question? It is. I'm making a podcast called Strangers on a Bench, where essentially I talk to people I don't know on benches for 10 or 15 minutes. Are you up for that? Do you want to give it a go? It's starting life, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah. Anything can happen. Do I mean, it's absolutely mad. You ready for the first question? Yeah, I'm ready. Is there a day of the week that you favour? That's tricky. I'd say probably Fridays, just gets the end of the work week.

You've got a weekend to look forward to. You might have some plans. It's a tricky one though because in some ways... Well, the other contenders? Yeah, I'd say... What's the other contenders in? It's a bit of a weird one, but I'd just probably say Monday. I guess it's like a fresh start to the week.

Like, whatever's happened. He's a chance to go into the week fresh. When did you last need a fresh start? God. Straight in there. I'd say probably at the moment actually I'm going through a bit of a fresh start really. There's been a few things that have happened over the last year or so which my life was looking one way and it's just completely changed in every aspect so I'm kind of seeking a new

start at the moment really. Can I ask what flipped it? Should we just go straight there? Well what flipped it? Yeah you know what are the events that led to the change. Well, go back to the start, yes. I had a breakup, broke up with an ex, which we were together for about four years. We just moved in together, and I made the decision to break up, but that was quite a difficult thing at the time.

Of course. And then a month after that, I started a new job, which was amazing, but also very intense. It was like a lot of pressure. I was still feeling really kind of hurt from the relationship ending and everything. Plus, I had to move out of my flat because we shared a flat together. move back in with my parents actually which I haven't done for like 10 years and then about six months after that I had some pretty bad health issues I was going through had to have some surgery so I've got a few like long-time health conditions and I

also then got fired from the job like a week later after the surgery which was really really shit what did you done to them what they didn't fit to be honest it wasn't really place for me anyway. Like I think it was actually blessing in disguise to be honest. And then after that, my health kind of deteriorated a bit more. Because of the surgeries or because of the job, just a general situation? No, just like the surgeries and stuff. Yeah. And then I've got a couple of friends actually that live out in Australia and I was going to go and spend like New Year with them anyway. And when I was out there, I thought actually I've got a bit of time on my hands. Why not just extend it for a bit? So yeah, I did that.

I had a really great time with them. I was doing this tour of the East Coast. But in, like, kind of like a day into the tour, we were doing this like rainforest tour. And the next day I woke up and I was in an ambulance in a hospital in the middle of nowhere. Because apparently I'd collapsed.

A load of toxins had like gone to my brain from my liver. And I spent about three weeks in a hospital. And just a random bit of Australia? It was a really remote place. Place you have to go over a gorge to get there. It's really, really remote. It's a more place that could have happened. Okay.

So you woke up in this, as in you opened your eyes and you're like, where am I? Yeah, it was actually terrifying because I was like, I had no recollection of any of this. The last thing I remember was being in a rainforest. They were like, lovely rainforest, lovely rainforest. Yeah.

Hospital? Yeah. Who told you, I mean, when you opened your eyes, with someone kind of near but, you know, who did you go to? It's still a bit of a blur, actually, quite a lot of it. But there was someone next to me. I remember this nurse who was next to me. And I can't really remember.

I think I was just spouting absolute crafter. But then, yeah, I was transferred to, like, a more major hospital where they had, like, specialist equipment and everything. And, yeah, I think I didn't really realize kind of what had happened until like a week in. This wasn't brought on by the rainforest in anyway. They still don't really know

why it happened actually. There wasn't some kind of poisonous frog or something. They were looking for that. They were looking at like if I got bitten by anything. I mean there's always a chance. Yeah, but apparently not. I think it was maybe a mixture of like dehydration, the heat plus.

The frog's more exciting. Yeah. I think you should just say the frog. Yeah. But yeah, it was only kind of like looking back over reports afterwards that I realized what had happened really. Because apparently, like, the tour guide had to drive me to the ambulance,

because it was like really stormy. I think they were trying to get a helicopter out, but the helicopter couldn't get through the storm. So he actually drove me in the tour bus, meet the ambulance, and then they had to drive over this ferry crossing to this little facility in the middle of nowhere. And you were just none the wiser, you were just lights out. I had absolutely no idea. Your friend was there at the time,

did anyone who were there at the time? I did have a friend with me, yeah, but I was apparently doing really strange things like, I think I tried to like drink out of my phone at one point. Yeah. Oh my God, whoa. Okay, right. But this all happened in Feb. Oh, so this has just happened?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I see, sorry, right, the hospital stays at the end of this line of events. Yeah, yeah. Okay, okay, so it's recent. I have to get repatriated back here, actually, yeah. Repatriated, I feel like there's a word they only use with someone's dead. When they said repatriated, I was like, are I dead? Yeah, am I dreaming this?

So are you in three weeks in the remote hospital, or one week and then you got moved to? One week in the remote one, and then I got moved to a main one in Cairns. And when you were in the remote hospital, you literally had no idea what was going on? No idea at all, yeah. Your friend was there? They were there, yeah. But to be fair, actually, it was only a friend that I made, like, out there on the trip. So it wasn't even somebody that I properly knew, really.

So they've gone real deep-end stuff there as a new friend. I know, yeah. And take me to hospital across tiny bridges in a storm. Stay with me for a week. Everyone was amazing on that, because I only knew them for a few days before this happened. So they didn't really know me properly, which is crazy. It was like the kindness of strangers, really. Yeah.

Yeah, it's going on. Did your friend know anything about your existing conditions? Kind of briefly. We kind of briefly wrote about it. Not really. Enough to say something to someone, right? Yeah, yeah. And this was a complete surprise, as in this event happening, there was no...

Completely complete shop. Is there anything that still remains a mystery, as in terms of like competing altogether? It's weird because apparently like I'd done like a full seven hours of the day. They were literally showing me pictures where I was like eating dinner and like doing other things. And I'm like, I literally have no recollection of that at all. It's so weird seeing yourself in a picture. That's odd. can't, you have no idea about.

Did you look happy in the pictures? Yeah, I looked, I looked really happy actually. Yeah, okay, well that's good. So I was like, yeah. She was happy then. So then suddenly just dropped. I think they had kind of been building up slowly throughout the day because they said I was shaking a little bit,

like my hands would tremoring a bit and they, I think someone thought I was a bit anxious or something or whatever. And then getting a little bit of confused, acting a little bit erratic, kind of wandering off by myself, back into the rest of. rainforest. He's like I just ended up in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, I suppose, well, we're only a couple of months out from this event, right? Yeah, yeah. We're not that far off from it happening.

What has this event meant to you? It's kind of confusing because I don't really know why it happened. But I've seen like doctors since I've been back here. Yeah, they're not really sure what to make of it either. They've put me on some medicine and they said they're going to reassess in like three months time. But I guess it kind of, it's kind of made me think anything can happen, I guess in a good way and a bad way. Because it's like you never really know what is going to happen. Completely.

And like one minute your life can look like this. The next minute it can be completely different in the space of a few hours. It kind of in some ways it's made me think I just want to try and do as many things as I can really. Was it everyone, was your existence ever on the line? I was obviously they're pretty key to get exhausted a bit. Yeah. Were you, were they stressed at any point? I think the main thing was because they didn't get through in the storm and they were like,

if we leave this any longer, like you're just getting worse. Like this thing is called to patic and syphylopathy when the toxins go to rain. So apparently if they leave it kind of untreated for long enough, like you can, it can eat like a coma and then even like death after that. I mean that's rare because they normally catch it before that. before that but yeah I think it could potentially have been like pretty serious so you've landed back with that and it's just added to the mystery moment of your life now where anything is kind of possible look at the randomness of existence and what can happen yeah it really has made me

think that to be honest in a lot of ways so many questions for i'm just getting them in order maybe you can let me know which one i should approach first i'm tempted both by your long long-term health conditions. I have one, will they? We could do we could do a high-five moment. And also the boyfriend. Yeah. Which one would you prefer to talk about initially?

Should we, if we're on the track with health, should we continue with that one? Yeah, perfect. Perfect. So from birth, from a certain point, how long have these conditions been in your life? So I've got a cystic fibrosis, and that was from birth.

It's a genetic condition. And initially, like, when I was born, people didn't really live beyond age, like, 12, I'd say. How, when you were born? When I was born, which was in the late 90s. So it was traditionally, like, a really life-limiting illness. But the main thing with it is the... This is quite scientific now, so... It's okay. Science is good.

Yeah, yeah. Basically, like, the membrane of your cells, there's, like, a... gene or a protein that controls the transport of water and salt in and out of your cells. And if that balance is affected, you can get like a layer of mucus on the outside of cells. And if that is not cleared, it can like cause infections to set in, which can then cause scarring. And that can affect like multiple organs. Because if they're all scarred and blocked and can't work properly, that can kind of lead to,

yeah, like, really bad, like damage across your whole body. So traditionally, it always kind of affected the lungs. but it also it can affect the digestive system as well and now as people are getting old with it they're realising it can we can even get a form of diabetes which is like related to that and like liver issues as well and I used to be pretty bad with my lungs but there's been a new genetic drug recently which has come out which is not a cure but it helps to like correct the gene or the protein in a way that makes the symptoms like less severe and stuff and it's honestly been amazing. My lungs used to be so bad growing up, but in the last six or five

years, I think, since I've been on the drug, I literally don't cough at all. I used to be in and out for like IV antibiotics all the time, haven't been in at all in the last five years. So that's literally literally been an amazing, amazing drug. But then obviously it's still there affecting like other parts of the body, so like the liver or the digestive system. So I guess my health condition is all kind of linked to that one initial illness. So you are long dead in any other time in history, basically? Yeah, basically, I wouldn't really be here today. Yeah.

Well, you know, God bless modern medicine. Yeah, honestly. The obvious, sorry, I was gonna ask you, like, what is your future, what is your future like with this? To honest, it's really unpredictable, I don't really know. Because there's more treatments coming out all the time. I mean, a lot of people with this condition, like live well into their 50s or 60s now, all beyond.

So, yeah, I'm pretty certain that I'll have, like, a really long and healthy life. I think it just takes a lot more adjustments. But obviously, then, sometimes things can crop up, like, with my liver. like I didn't expect it to kind of deteriorate in the way that it has. But then again, there's like fixes for that. So to be honest, it looks pretty good. But I think also because people did, used to die quite young, it's also kind of a guinea pig moment as well.

Like they don't really know a lot of... I don't know what's quite possible yet. Yeah, they're trying things that they've never tried before because they've never had patients at this age or with these new conditions before. So, yeah, it's kind of a mix of all of that. But I think in general, like, it's never been a thing that's really concerned me,

like enough something drastically changes. Unless you spend too much time in rainforest. Exactly, unless they go back and have another look. Yes, the frog gets you again. Yeah. So what does this do to, I mean, as a kid with this, what does it do to a kid to have annual, and the way your parents parent you to have this condition?

So I think, to be quite honest, for me as a young kid below age nine or something, the symptoms that I had weren't as severe. It was only more when I got into my teenage years that they decided to have a bit more of an impact. But I think a lot of how I see it has kind of been influenced by my parents. Like I think they've actually been really great at being like, because you have this, we're not going to like limit you in any way or like not be able to like have the same type of life as your friends or other kids. I want you to try and do everything that you possibly can. It might take a bit more planning, it might take a bit more forward thinking or whatever, but it doesn't mean that you can't do it.

But I think especially in my teenagers when I was getting a bit more ill, you do naturally have points where you're like, oh why me? You know, if all my friends are doing this and that and I have to miss out because of being in hospital and no one else can really relate in the same way. it can sometimes be quite isolating, I think, as well with this condition, you're not allowed to meet people with the same thing because of cross-infection. Like, you can pick up infections from each other. What? Really? Yeah.

So you're not allowed to meet people with the same thing. It's like something in a sci-fi novel or something. Yeah. Hang on, but how are you to know? Well, that's the thing. Like, I guess I could have passed by people every day, yeah. Massive badge. Massive flashlight, I mean, yeah.

As you can't see, but obviously, I mean, you can talk to them in a digital sense. Yeah, you can go on digital. So, I mean, obviously it's not like a rule, like you can do whatever you want with your life, but it basically is you shouldn't do that. So I've never really known someone with the same thing as me that I've been able to spend time with, which is difficult is. It's hard as well, because like as much as other people can sympathise and empathise, it's not quite the same sometimes as someone that's just,

of course. Someone that's been for you stuff as well. There's no substitute for someone having the same thing. You asked yourself, like, at some point you ask yourself, why me? Yeah. Did you ever think of an answer for that? Did any part of you want to forge a reason for it happening? I mean, something as you've told yourself.

Um, I guess that's a difficult one. I guess a lot of the time I kind of just focused on Survivor. That sounds a bit weird. like just focus on kind of surviving the, like each difficult surgery, hospital stay or whatever, and getting through it, and then kind of reflecting back on it and being like, yeah, maybe I just have to be just a resilient person and that's why this has happened? Yeah, it's not really.

It's kind of a difficult, difficult one because I think people compare themselves to their peers at that age anyway, and I think when I felt like I was so limited, a lot of the time in comparison to others. It more became something that I was, it was like I kind of buried it away and pretended it didn't exist in order to fit in more and, yeah, pretend that I was,

I didn't have this condition, I think. But I think since then, a very different outlook on that and, yeah, a very good support system, healthy strategies of coping with it now. But yeah, I think it was more just frustration and anger and like sadness at that time, I think, in relation to that. Another weird question for you.

I quite like to when thinking about my own particular condition. Mine's not as bad as yours, but I've type 1 diabetes. Okay, I've diabetes too. Oh, great. You know, obviously the negatives are obvious, right? Yeah. But, you know, there are some odd positives to be drawn. I can say for myself what they are,

but can you think of, like, things you generally think have been kind of positive or useful things that you've learnt through this, things that you'd be sad, you know, if I kind of rid you of any ailments whatsoever and you're totally healthy, but, oh, I've lost an element of myself.

Yeah, I think you definitely, yeah, I can definitely think of things that I have learnt that I wouldn't have known about or wouldn't have been able to, yeah, to gain from that. If I hadn't had that, you're right. I think there are a lot of positives, actually, too.

What are your key? Let's do the top three. The top three positive is to see five-brose. I would say, actually, we'll see FIT's weird because we have to eat a lot of, like, fatty foods because it's not going to put on weight, so I can literally eat anything that I want. That's a fun one. Yeah. Does that mean, like, dinner time looks funny for you? What do you just, what do you have a breakfast?

A bit boring, actually. I'm kind of a cereal person, but I'd put like full fat milk with it, like maybe have a hot chocolate. That's the only milk to have anyway. Yeah, exactly. Who are the absolute? Who would have skimmed milk? Who would have the freaks out of the other milk? It should just be gone away with completely.

Give it a stern talking to. I'm sure the skim milk will have their say. Sorry, right, breakfast, breakfast. Top three. Yeah, okay, top three. For first you can eat what you want. Yeah, I can be what I'm wrong. Is that a three coming in hot at three?

Yeah, I'd say. Two would be, I think very resilient. Like, it makes you be able to get through anything. Yeah, come at me. I can handle anything. If I can handle this, I can handle it. Hold on for breakfast. I can do anything.

Yeah, you can handle anything. Exactly. Like a breakup. Is that what you said when you were breaking up with, they said? I should have done, actually. It's like, I can handle anything. Bye. Yeah, so resilient, that's a good one.

That's number two. Number one. Oh, pressure is on for number one. Take it's out, no rush. It's a bit of a cheesy one, but I'd say it makes you look at people in situations and handle things really well. And I think you have a lot more empathy for different types of people and you see different situations and scenarios. I guess you meet a lot of different people because of that, like nurses, doctors, like patients,

you just come into contact with people that you wouldn't normally come into contact with if you didn't have these things and it makes you understand more about the way some parts of the world work and, like, different people and cultures. And, yeah, it just makes your life a bit more enriched, I guess. Well, I don't think that's cheesy at all. There's nothing cheesy about. empathy. No. It's pure. And actually I would also put that as my number one as well. Would

you? Yeah. What would be your number two and three? Oh God. Well it's not I can eat everything. That's that's that's the one opposite. Sadly. Okay so for number one's empathy. Number three for me would be to not take things as seriously. I mean life is a fast anyway. When I was in a hospital, like a kind of, you know, long story short, you know, came very close to what's it called ketosis where, you know, you just get into a coma and you're dead basically, or at least, you know, you come quite close to it. And I just basically caught it really late. And I was in a hospital for a few days. It was all pretty intense. But really, what, the key thing that I was thinking, I was like, this is so ridiculous. Life is so weird. Suddenly I'm just like, surrounded by these

people I don't know, putting various drips and things into me and lines into me. Yeah. I'm like, what's, like, what is this? And now I've got to, you know, I've got to keep myself alive by having like jelly babies. Jelly babies are the things that keep me alive. I mean, that's, that it's just like, I mean, it's just, the mind boggles really. It's like not a real, obviously not a real thing, but of course it is real thing. Yeah.

But it really makes you think what's important in that, isn't it? So like that, like you said, just crazy in so many ways. when you see general life and people getting upset about tiny little things and you're like, it's irrelevant. Exactly. You know. Yeah, that's definitely up there in the top three. That's good.

And then otherwise, what's otherwise? I'm going to say, with my one, it was you keep yourself alive every day. As in you perform tasks to keep yourself alive. Yeah. And I think there's something interesting in that. Like it's a kind of day-to-day living in a sense. Yeah, yeah. And you just live in the day.

And that's a bit magical. You know, it's impossible to get too carried away with anything really when you've got to do that every day. Yeah, it's such an important job. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, so that's probably up there, I think. Yeah, that's a really good question, yeah.

You know, there's so many things that are good to get out of. I feel like if you've been dealt that card, Use it true advantage as well. You may as well use it to just get out of stuff. I mean, not all the time. I never feel guilty. Not for the tiniest of milliseconds to use it. It's like the least I deserve is to use it.

Yeah. Put a slight tiny advantages here and there. You know what I mean? Exactly. Where was the last thing you excuse yourself from? Oh, God. I really can't think, you know. That's all right.

Yeah. Maybe you're an absolute saint. saying he's endured, he's endured everything through and through. I'll go to the bitter end. I'm guessing you're a human, so you must talk to plenty of people in your life, talking about your condition at some point. Yeah. What would you wish people would know about your experience of it? Or in terms of talking to you about it, what would you wish they knew that would help them, you know, if they were talking to someone else with such experiences? I think I would say, like, don't be afraid of kind of going there or, like, asking questions.

Because I think sometimes people are like, I don't want to ask you this in case it makes you upset or in case, you know, I don't want to, like, say the wrong thing or something. And I think people need to stop being so scared of offending somebody. obviously like no one's obliged to answer questions about their health that they don't want to but I think as well like they can also say that right yeah but I think like some people tend to tip to around it and I think you don't need to do that because I feel comfortable very comfortable talking about it and I think it just naturally leads to like you know closer friendships or relationships so you can share things and you don't have to have an

visible kind of barrier there, I guess. And I guess this maybe goes for like illnesses or chronic illnesses in general, but like sometimes people might not look ill, whatever ill looks like, but you don't know, kind of know what they're going through underneath it all. So when someone tells you if they feel like this, like believe them and like they're not making excuses and then, well, maybe in your case. but you know people do go through a lot of things with these conditions and stuff

good answer I think as you're talking now people think it's a risk to ask certain questions of people who are out of the condition or whatever but like one I think it's never as risky as they think it is yeah but the reward and what you can give the other person and the feeling of being seen or understood is huge no I 100% agree with you on that

because that can yeah really make someone's day or like you said help them to feel a scene or stood in a certain period when they might really need it. How has it worked for you and relationships as in romantic ones? I mean what impacts has it had or maybe it hasn't any but like what? I think yeah it definitely has had impact on relationships. The majority of people have been very understanding and like tried to be supportive but I do think with my things because it is, well there's quite a lot of different things happening. Like I think people can become overwhelmed.

Like I've always been, I want people to see me as a person first and like this condition is just, it's a part of me, of course, but it doesn't like define me. And I think people either go down one track of either it, just ignoring it and pretending it's not there because they don't want to feel the pain from that or see me up in hospital or whatever. So they just ignored it and just put it. and just pushed it away, or they've kind of gone the other way where it's stressing about

everything and like, like, that's kind of become the main focus. So I think neither of those extremes are healthy. And also, I guess in some ways, it kind of helps you root out the bad ones and the good ones because it's like, well, you know, if you can't handle this or don't want to, or if you embarrassed by it or whatever, then buy. Completely. Yeah. If you're on some kind of dating experience,

like how quickly are you getting it out, then, you know, the information? I think I like to kind of try to talk about it sooner rather than later. Because obviously I want someone to get to know me as me first, but then also, you know, it's not like something I just want to say like the first thing I meet somebody, but...

Very first thing. Yeah. But normally I think people kind of naturally know about it before then anyway because I have to take enzymes whenever I eat and stuff. So, you know, I'll take them but I won't really make... You know, I don't make a big deal about it or like they might see... So what do they... Is it just in pill form? Just pills, yeah.

I take with food and like, you know. How many pills you got to take every day? About 50. Seriously? 50? 50, yeah. Yeah. Loads of different things.

50. 5.0. Cricy. Yeah. Handfuls. Where did you put all those? Do you just have a massive pill store in your house? Oh, I have like a massive box.

Like literally like a, you know, if you were like moving house, you've got like a carven box, kind of like that size. Like a little chemist supply that I've got, pharmacist. I met at someone the other day, a 75-year-old. It was just old and just had loads of health stuff. He had take 32 a day. and I thought that was a lot. But 50. If you're talking about the different types of ones or the actual amount of pills of themselves.

Yeah. It's like 50 pills, but then about 12 different types. 12 types. Oh my God. Now we're here with the pills. I mean, let's just do it. Tell me exactly, in whatever way you would like your kind of pill day. Pill day, okay. Tell me through the full 50 like of a day. Of a day, okay. What time were we waking up?

Uh, like half eight, eight. Oh, you think you're like your sleeper? Yeah, I do like my sleep. That's good. Um. So half eight and how quickly are we pulling it up? Well, I have them all ready set to go, like I make them up in a little pill box. So that genetic drug I was talking about, it's called CAFTrio, that's the one I take.

How many of those? Two of them. And then I take two of this one called, it's a really long name, this one, it's called a sodium oxycolic acid. That's for my liver. Sorry, and the two of those. Two of those. Yeah, and then I'd have one called a Maprozole. That's a quite a common one.

So I take one of them. I take all the fat soluble vitamins, because I can't digest them normally. So A, D, E, and K. I take a geretic called therosomide. I also take a steroid called prednisolone. Respect for knowing all the names of these things. Yeah.

Ingrained in my head, head like yeah like my DNA um yeah then i take a new one actually since the rainforest thing fucking new one yeah it's an interesting color that one so it's a nice bright purple actually oh it's quite funky it is quite funky funky just out of interest when was the last time you recited a pill day to somebody oh that wasn't a medical professional you don't know this is the first time oh god this is what a great great day great day around It's a first. So where are your breakfast?

Okay, so take enzymes with breakfast with any kind of food. I take enzymes, so I take about seven of them, I'd say. They can't just get that all in one pill. No. That's annoying. It is annoying. Maybe in the future there'll be one, you know, super pill. Super pill.

With just 50 in one. Yeah, that would be amazing. Someone could invent that, that would be great. Shout out to the person who can invent that. Yeah, yeah, I'd do anything. Yeah. Okay, so that's a breakfast done, is that first pill event done? Yeah, that's all done.

And then you're going to have a break for how long until the next pill? Until lunch now, unless I wanted to eat any, if I had a snack. Can you eat anything without the enzyme? Only, certainly doesn't have fat or protein in it. Protein, okay. So, what is that? Fruit, right, okay. But then obviously I have diabetes too, so I'd have.

have to inject with food. Nice. So I'd have that with, like, food as well. Yeah. Okay, so we're on to lunch. So we're on to lunch. So I'd take more enzymes at the lunch. Another seven or eight,

depending on what I'm eating. And then if I have another snack in the afternoon, like a biscuit or whatever, take a couple of, a couple more enzymes. And then dinner, more enzymes. I'd also take that new, fancy new drug, the refractional. Purple one?

Yeah, I'd take the use. the sodium oxycolic acid again, the liver one, and the evening version of the genetic drug, which isn't called Cafftrio, it's called Calodeco. There's one of them. And then I think that's it. So that's roughly the day. Any highlights there?

Maybe actually the morning, when I just, like, chop the morning, it's like that's a big part of that all done. I've just... Then you can crack on. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe that's the pill highlight of the day.

They didn't imagine saying that sentence earlier. No, actually. That's my pill highlight of the day. Well, thank you for taking me through your pill day. You're welcome. I hope it was important. It definitely was. Maybe this is a bit of an unfair question to ask. Can you kind of fully let go ever?

Can you think of a time, like, and if you can, can you think of a time where you felt like really just free? Or is it, or is it, or, you know, essentially, there is always a limit there? I think it very much depends on who I'm with and how much they know about me and where we are in the circumstances because there is also always that element

of having to just watch out for things in the back of your head. What are you typically doing when you feel closest to that moment? I think doing things that I'm really passionate about. Like I'm really into like theater, I do a bit of amateur acting. And I just love being on stage, performing.

And I think that when you're so engrossed in a passion or hobby, that you kind of almost forget about things, I think that could be something that's really, really, really freeing and amazing. Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Theatre? Yeah, yeah. Can you remember your first experience of theatre

in why it drew you towards it? I hope when I was in secondary school and I was going through a bit of a rough patch with my help and things just started to get a bit more serious. I was in a production at school and I remember just feeling like I could completely let go when I was playing a different character

or exploring different things and I think in some senses that helped me to kind of form an identity or explore things through another character, but about myself as well. I just felt on top of the world and like I was like, yeah, this is amazing. I love this. It was just that feeling of just being completely removed from the health conditions or whatever and it could just be something completely different, I think. I think it's a shame that you just can't wake up tomorrow and just be a different character. Do you know what I mean? As in like imagine, imagine for a week you could be called this,

this is going to be my backstory. And when I meet people, this is how I'm going to be. Yeah. And like enjoy, and like, maybe this is absolutely mad, this idea. But, like, if that wasn't harmful for anyone, like if you met someone, I don't know, you went to the post office and you're just a different role, you know? Different person, no harm to anyone.

I always feel bad for anyone who enjoys that. They happen to wait for all these opportunities. Yeah. Where is there a way of not doing it in just real life? That's true, yeah. It's past the time. What character would you like? I mean, if within yourself, let's imagine you had to do this.

Okay. Who would you like to be here, you are not? I think I'd like to see what it would be like to be someone with a completely different I for mine every aspect. Just like the complete opposite of everything that I, or even who had like completely different morals for me and like just someone that was so, so different. So I could actually like see exactly. what the other, the complete opposite of me would be like.

Whoa. Just because I think it would be interesting. What would that be like? What look, what look could you go for? What do you want this character? This character, well, I guess... What is the opposite of what you look like? Do you want to describe your general look?

A general look. Okay, well, I'm obviously very small, so someone that's like six... But he's not obviously very small. Oh, well, I mean, to you, you know, but... Yeah, maybe like 6-5. Gender? Male, maybe. Face, what are the face doing?

Kind of brutish, are we gentle? Well, we have a bit of facial hair, I think. Goatey or just full beard, he'd beck. I'd go with full beard, yeah, full beard, like everything. Hair? Hair, maybe bold. Okay, my part. Clothes?

Maybe quite active. I'm not really a sporty kind of person. Well, I like sport, but I'm not like super active. Okay. So I'd say maybe someone that's really into fitness. They're going to be really confused at this post office. I know, yeah. Hang on a minute.

She's a six foot five, four guy now. Maybe they'd be a bit... Quite loud? Yeah, I'd say very, very... very, very loud. So very loud? Yeah, just like a huge voice. Yeah, hit them from ours way.

Yeah. Should finish this off with a name? Do you want to name? Yeah, I don't know what... What are we calling this guy? Right, and you finish off with the name. Francois? Francois.

Francois, yeah, that could work. Francois. Loud Francois. Laud Francois. Laud Francois. I think Francois would be quite arrogant. Does that mean you would like, to be more arrogant.

Maybe sometimes. Yeah. Out of interest, just because you've named this type of person, is this the kind of person you're attracted to? Oh no, definitely not. As in if I'm from France where I came along here, I'd be, I would hate him, yeah. Bald, bald, a beard guy, you wouldn't be like, oh, what a hotty. Definitely not.

Definitely not. No. At the start, you've said, which seems like quite long time ago now. quite on talking it now. You said, so now I mean, you know, the point of your life where things are going to opened up. Yeah. So where are we sitting right now with

all of that? And like, you know, when you start dreaming, what do you dream about? I think I'm thinking more about the opportunities that are out there and that you don't have to live your life a certain way that you think you have to, what the society

tells you, looks right on paper, you have to live like because things can happen and things do happen that yeah you're never going to be able to predict so I think at the end of the day you've got to do what makes you happy what you really feel is your passion and what you think you can contribute to the world rather than going through things just for the sake of it and I know that's a lot easier said than done but yeah I'm kind of thinking about that at the moment and obviously I don't know which way my health's going to go and I'm still figuring it out and I think that's That's fine. Life is just a journey that you just figure out and it's messy and it's complicated,

but that's part of the fun of it. And sometimes a frog bites you in an Australian rainforest. Exactly. So what is the, you know, let's imagine you were daydream about something before I came and bothered you. What is your kind of wildest vision for how you might spend your next X amount of time in your life? I think I want to try and do something that matters and helps people to understand each other better and realise that if they're going through tough times and whatever they're not alone and there are so many of the people that share that experience

and I think obviously like I've told you before I love theatre and drama and I think if I could use that to be able to do that that would be amazing. So some kind of theatre company who worked with people who are shoggling in some way? Yeah, or maybe the theatre company. I brought those productions, yeah, to people.

I like that, or turning their writing into pieces of theatre and being able to share that with people in ways that they might not have been able to have access to it before. Maybe travelling with it as well, like a travelling theatre company. It's all possible, isn't it? It is. That's very exciting. Yeah, it's just taking the first step

because I think a lot of the time people can hold themselves back by, like, overthinking things. Sometimes I'm a bit of an overthink. But I think one of the things I've learnt is that you actually just have to just do stuff, just go for it, even if you don't know what's going to happen or not going to happen. Just do it. Yeah, exactly. Is this next chapter also looking for romantic things as well or not really? Yeah, absolutely. I'm open to it. I've had a few in between things. Imagine you meet someone they call Francois.

Oh, that would be a massive red flag. Imagine. Well, just the name? Just the name. to know. Anything I've missed out? I have a question for you actually. A bit of a...

And if you can ask whatever you want. Bit of a funny one. Well, not funny one, but... If you had a death row meal, what would it be? Death row meal? Yeah. It would be... I don't know if this is boring.

Tell me how boring this is. Okay, I'll be honest. Probably spaghetti carbonara. Oh, you know what? I actually love spaghetti carbonara. It's one of my favourite pasta dishes. I just think it's just so indulgent and it's so rich and it is absolutely terrible diabetically. It's just a nightmare to eat.

So I think I... We'd have Parmesan on it. Oh yeah, yeah, big time. Heavily, heavy dose. And so I think I would... Yeah, I think like a really massive bowl of that would do me. Yeah, do you, I mean, is this question you think about often? Not really, no, I'm not expected to be your death-ro, but if I am.

You'd be an unlikely death-free candidate. Maybe, Frantzois. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. It was Francois. You don't understand. It wasn't me, you see. It was Francois.

Yeah. Well, I just don't think if I should ask a penitimate question. Yeah, let's do this, let's do this one. Yeah. What we're going to do is this. If you're comfortable enough to close your right, I can close my eyes too. Okay.

So we'll close eyes and I'm going to ask you to picture a room, a scene, a place somewhere from your past you can remember in really specific detail. But if you could try and describe that moment in that place in as much detail as you can remember. Okay. So I'm with my best friend and I'm. I'm six or seven years old. And we're in a tent with a red and orange carpet and some little boxes that we've put cushions on. And we're sitting down on them.

And there's books on the floor. And there's music playing in the background. we're both laughing so hard that our stomachs are hurting and there's a summer breeze which is making their walls of the tent flap and there's a smell of like coal from a barbecue drifting in through the tent and there's also little fairy lights strung around the inside which uh have an orange glow and everything always feels quite magical this afternoon the evening in summer and there's a streak of sunlight coming in through the tent flaps and you can see the dust in the rays of sun just sparkling there and yeah you just feel Like we're untouchable. Well that was lovely.

Yeah. What beautifully described? I felt like I should have got you to describe loads of things. What have I missed out on? Sounds fun. Should I just go to describe every experience of yours? It's funny what happens when you close your eyes, isn't it? It's like you go anywhere.

I mean that was great, isn't it? Great times. Okay, well look, thank you so much to talk to me. Yeah, thanks for approaching me. What surprised you about talking to a stranger on a bench? I think maybe that we've had so much to talk about and yeah, that you can actually have some really interesting conversations and so much in common. Some of the experience in your life, like other people can have like similar, similar versions of that of their own yeah it's just been a really fun conversation as

well really enjoyable and you've learned things I guess too so yeah probably all of those things I think good answer yeah this is quite funny the guy talking there he was on episode number three oh was he threw his phone into the pond you didn't like it didn't have your phone he threw it into a pond oh no I know. This is you know about people. I also know exactly how he wants to die. I mean, there's... You know, about people now, yeah.

Can you guess the way he wants to die? I feel like it's going to be something really wild that I'm never going to... Correct, yeah. Never going to guess. Well, yeah, it's wild. But you probably would have guessed it eventually. Anyway, he wants to die making love. Oh, okay.

Yeah. Fair request. Yeah. Fair dream on the request. At which point? Yeah. Yeah, it's a really good point. I think he went into the details of that.

He just said that saying, what's the time? Ooh. Do you want to know the last question I asked people? Yeah. It's, what are you going to do next? I guess in a literal sense. I'm getting the bus. It's about an hour that I'm travelling for.

Quite a chunky bus ride. Yeah, quite a jinky bus ride. A bit of people watching, yeah. I'm actually seeing a couple of close friends after that. I'm looking forward to it. What are you doing next? Well, so we're going to an exhibition opening in King's Cross in about two hours. Do I, A, dump the stuff at home, or B, attempt to talk to someone else.

Choices. Yeah, then you know where when decisions could happen, yeah. Yeah. I think I'd try my luck and take the equipment with me, see if someone would talk. Yes. Yeah. I like that. Yeah.

Okay, well, I feel like, because you said that, I'm going to do that now. Yeah, because I've really enjoyed this conversation, so I think. Someone else would. Someone else might as well. Yeah. Well, thank you very much. Yeah, anything you'd like to end with. Any words?

New words of wisdom? I just say life's short. It sounds a bit drastic, but grab everything you can and go for it. There you go. Oh. Everything went out of Wackwell, summer made to carry heavy. Walk up to peeping sound. Didn't know if I's dead or alive.

Now lives changed in every way I know.