#467 Male Breast Cancer - What You Need to Know with Jake Messier#467 Male Breast Cancer - What You Need to Know with Jake Messier
The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach
The conversation appears to focus on male breast cancer, with Jake Messier sharing his stage 4 diagnosis story, stigma, and advocacy work, while Laura Lummer asks about awareness, research gaps and support for men. It also seems to highlight practical ways partners and families might help spot symptoms earlier.
1:04:21•19 Jun 2026
Jake Messier on Male Breast Cancer, Stigma and Fighting for the 1%
Episode Overview
- Male breast cancer exists and currently makes up about 1% of all breast cancer cases, yet many people – including some medical staff – are unaware men can get it.
- Jake describes months of delay from first finding a lump to diagnosis, showing how lack of awareness can cost crucial time.
- Gendered language, pink imagery and women-only support spaces can leave male patients feeling excluded from information, care and community.
- Jake argues for directing 1% of breast cancer research funding to male-specific work, including male mice in labs and a male breast cancer cell line registry.
- Partners are encouraged to know what a man’s chest normally looks and feels like so that any changes, such as lumps or dimpling, are spotted and checked sooner.
“"Your world is going to start moving incredibly fast and incredibly slow all at the exact same time."”
How can compelling narratives motivate and inspire others? This conversation between host Laura Lummer and guest Jake Messier shows just how powerful one honest story can be. The episode centres on male breast cancer, something many people have never even heard of.
Jake, who introduces himself as "the guy with stage four breast cancer," walks through how he found a lump while putting on deodorant, shrugged it off for months, and eventually heard the words no one expects to hear as a man: breast cancer. He recalls the mammogram tech quietly warning him, "your world is going to start moving incredibly fast and incredibly slow all at the exact same time," a line that captures the emotional whiplash of diagnosis.
Jake talks frankly about stigma, describing how he was handed information packs full of "she and her" language and images of older women, and even turned away from local support groups "based on my gender." He explains how isolating it feels to be part of the 1% of breast cancer cases that are men, and how that isolation can affect mental health and even treatment decisions. At the same time, there’s a strong thread of advocacy and problem‑solving.
Jake outlines his push for 1% of breast cancer research funding to be directed specifically to male breast cancer, the need for male mice and male cell lines in labs, and the simple but crucial role of awareness: men and their partners learning what "normal" looks and feels like so they can act sooner if something changes.
This episode suits anyone affected by cancer, especially those interested in under‑represented patient groups, medical bias, and how ordinary people push big organisations to change. It might leave you asking: who in your life needs to hear that men can get breast cancer too?
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