Podcaster dies of cancer aged 38,

A woman suffering from incurable breast cancer who became the star of a podcast discussing her illness has died aged 38, three years after her diagnosis.

Sarah Edmundson, who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, had been presenting the How Long Have You Got? podcast with her co-star Jeremy Langmead, who is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, since April. 

When the pair met via Instagram in 2023, Sarah, from Underbarrow, Cumbria, had triple negative breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of the disease. By this time she had already had a bilateral mastectomy and was on her third round of chemotherapy.

Meanwhile Jeremy, 58, had surgery in 2022, but since then has seen the cancer return, had a course of radiotherapy and is now on a hormone treatment therapy for two years. 

Writing in The Times, which produced the podcast, he remembered his dear friend and opened up about the last few weeks of her life, saying she kept her sense of humour until the end. 

Jeremy said: 'She never lost her spirit, even in her final weeks. she texted one evening: ''If this is the end, it's f***ing bullshit. Just saying, I look like Rab C Nesbitt.''  

He recalled the last time he spoke to Sarah she had selflessly called him for an update on his own diagnosis after an oncology appointment.

In that final phone call she told him that she was planning to have an early Christmas party the following week and she asked if he would pick her up some festive PJs while he was in London. 

Unfortunately the party never happened. Three days later, Sarah died peacefully at home.

Jeremy said: 'A few times over the short but treasured two years that I got to spend with Sarah she told me, passionately, 'I don't want to die. I love my life.'' 

He said he finds those words both 'devastating and comforting' as it's sad her life ended so young but at least she loved it while she was here. 

In June Jeremy and Sarah joined 1,100 walkers who took part in Macmillan's Lake District Mighty Hike, raising an impressive £540,000 for people living with cancer. 

The event, which features a choice of a full or half marathon trek, took place in the scenic Lake District and raised funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. 

Jeremy said Sarah completed the entire hike even though she was limping and and stopping to take medication. 

He said: 'Sarah stopped momentarily halfway, topped up on her prescribed OxyContin meds and carried on nonchalantly as if she had taken nothing more than a swig of Lucozade. I don't think I have ever been more proud of anyone.'

Despite having incurable cancer and struggling to walk, Jeremy said Sarah made the most of her final summer. 

He explained she went on holidays with 'a handsome man' and took other trips with her family and friends.

However after the summer Sarah's cancer had spread to her bones, lymph nodes, lungs and liver and she began to decline, but she didn't give up hope.

Jeremy remembered the 'devastating' moment Sarah asked him to help her plan her funeral. 

He revealed that he sat on her bed and they went through some options for her funeral 'matter-of-factly'. 

Sarah has an impressive career holding several roles across the property sector at Fine & Country, the Guild of Property Professionals, Boomin, and more recently as CEO of estate agency charity Agents Together. 

Industry leaders paid tribute to her last week, with Agents Together saying: 'Sarah was truly one of a kind, and in every aspect of her life and work she thought first of others before herself.

Speaking about her cancer diagnosis on How Long Have You Got? in April, Sarah explained:  'This is now two and a half years since my journey began. Since, in all honesty, my life was tipped upside down in a moment. It literally is a moment, that moment that you, for me particularly, find a lump.

'I literally found a lump almost under my arm. I had a funny little pain in my arm and I had a lump and I thought, gosh, what can that be? But we immediately go to the worst case scenario.

'I think that's a natural human reaction, although not everybody does. And some people don't immediately go and see a doctor, but I was in panic mode from the moment I found it.'

Sarah revealed when she explained to her GP what she had found over the phone he decided to refer her straight to the breast clinic in Lancaster.

She said: 'So they did a biopsy, but unfortunately off the initial ultrasound, that they were pretty sure that it was cancer just because of the shape of the tumour.

'From the minute I found the lump to the day that I started my first chemotherapy, it was, I think it was just over three and a half weeks. So incredible.

'My first treatment was chemo. I have a breast cancer called triple negative, which is one of the more complex ones to treat because it is not reactive to hormones.

'I had the original treatment plan was chemotherapy and then some surgery and then some radiotherapy as well. And I did all of that over around about an eight to nine month period.'

Sarah revealed that initially she was told that her prognosis was great and 'totally curable.'

She said: 'Around nine to 10 months later, I rang the bell at radiotherapy. I'd had at that point, over six months of chemo, I'd had a double mastectomy and full reconstruction.

'There was no evidence of disease on any scans or anything that anybody could determine.

'And on the 5th of January, 2023, unfortunately I found a tiny lump in my neck and it was on the same side as my original cancer. 

'So again, another round of chemo and then some more radiotherapy again on a slightly different area. And again, then I came out of that, I rang the bell, albeit not quite as enthusiastically, I'll be honest.'

However in May an MRI showed up a mass on Sarah's liver that was growing quickly.

She explained: 'So now we use phrases like this is treatable, but incurable, which I had a very, very rough month.'