189: Yes To Life Show with Robin Daly MBE - Episode 189189: Yes To Life Show with Robin Daly MBE - Episode 189
UK Health Radio Podcast
Robin Daly talks with Dagmara Beine about her daughter Zuzsa’s extended life with aggressive leukaemia, the creation of Zuzsa’s Way, and the role of integrative care in childhood cancer. Their discussion moves between medical detail, spiritual perspective and raw reflections on grief, purpose and everyday health choices.
45:49•17 Sept 2026
Zuzsa’s Way: Love, Loss and Integrative Care in Childhood Cancer
Episode Overview
- Integrative oncology should begin at the same time as conventional treatment to improve both outcomes and quality of life.
- Small, everyday decisions around food, cosmetics and medications significantly influence long‑term disease risk, including cancer.
- Parents may need to trust their intuition, question medical plans and insist on being part of a genuine care team.
- Grief can hold both deep suffering and real joy at once, and learning to sit with both is part of healing.
- A strong sense of purpose and belief in being "okay" can be a powerful factor in how long and how well someone lives with cancer.
“"Cancer is not just bad luck. Five to ten percent of cancers are bad luck. Ninety to ninety‑five percent are all the little decisions that we make in our life."”
How do people find hope in the darkest times? This conversation on the Yes To Life Show follows Dagmara Beine as she talks with host Robin Daly about love, loss and the fierce determination behind her integrative approach to childhood cancer. You'll hear how Dagmara became an expert in integrative oncology while supporting her daughter, Zuzsa, through an aggressive leukaemia that most children survive for only a year or two.
Instead, Zuzsa lived 11 years with the disease and enjoyed remarkable quality of life, travelling, partying and, as her mum says simply, "this girl lived." Dagmara argues passionately that integrative care shouldn’t be a last resort, but should start alongside conventional treatment to boost both survival chances and everyday wellbeing. The episode introduces Zuzsa’s Way, Dagmara’s new book built from her daughter’s own words.
With around five million followers, Zuzsa openly shared her cancer journey, and Dagmara has crafted a memoir that keeps her language, humour and “potty mouth” intact, followed by a second section aimed at girls and women. That part lays out, in very plain language, how food, cosmetics, medications and lifestyle choices shape long‑term health and disease risk. The discussion goes far beyond medicine.
Dagmara and Robin talk frankly about holding a child as they die, the shock that follows, and what Dagmara calls her "grief apprenticeship". She reflects on learning that "both can be true" – intense suffering and genuine joy existing side by side – and how purpose, faith and a stubborn belief in being "okay" became central to Zuzsa’s long survival.
Anyone dealing with serious illness, parenting through crisis, or grappling with grief will find a mix of practical ideas, spiritual reflection and unfiltered honesty in this episode. It might leave you asking: how could you care for the body, mind, emotions and spirit of the people you love a little more fully?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.