S6 EP 44: Breast Cancer, Business & Self-Advocacy: Why You Must Never Hand Over Your PowerS6 EP 44: Breast Cancer, Business & Self-Advocacy: Why You Must Never Hand Over Your Power
RAW CHATTER!
Deb Krier shares her multi-cancer journey, hospital complications and ongoing treatment while running a business, focusing on self-advocacy and personal agency. The conversation with Vicky Midwood highlights questioning doctors, building a support tribe and refusing to hand over your power in health and work.
46:26•7 Jul 2026
Breast Cancer, Boundaries and Business: Holding On to Your Power
Episode Overview
- Question doctors and treatments; you are allowed to understand and refuse anything that is not clearly explained.
- Treat your body and health as your responsibility, keeping agency rather than handing all power to professionals.
- Bring an advocate to major appointments so someone clear-headed can ask questions and remember information.
- Choose medical and wellness practitioners you feel safe with, and fire those whose approach or manner doesn’t fit you.
- Recognise your limits, adjust work around energy levels, and accept that saying no is a complete sentence.
“It is your body. It is your life. And if you're not going to take agency for it, who the hell is?”
What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction, illness and everyday life? This conversation on RAW CHATTER! follows Deb Krier, a business owner and three-time cancer patient, as she talks with host Vicky Midwood about refusing to hand over her power – whether to doctors, diagnosis or fear.
Deb shares how a "stage zero" breast cancer diagnosis shifted to stage four metastatic breast cancer in just six months, and how her first chemo led to catastrophic complications, septic shock and seven weeks in hospital. Her humour and directness shine through as she recalls telling the doctor, "I'm sorry, I don't have time for this," and later firing a surgeon because "he had the bedside manner of a toad". The heart of the conversation is self-advocacy.
Deb and Vicky talk frankly about questioning doctors, understanding medication, and the right to refuse treatment you don't understand. As Vicky says, "It is your body. It is your life.
And if you're not going to take agency for it, who the hell is?" Deb backs this up with practical examples, like challenging staff who kept bringing her pills no one could explain, and encouraging people to take someone with them to key appointments because "your brain shorts out" when you hear the word cancer. For women in business, there’s a strong thread about leadership and identity.
Deb describes running her marketing agency through ongoing treatment, adjusting her workload around her energy, and giving herself permission to rest. She also talks about building a "tribe" of advocates – from her husband to friends and colleagues – and how asking for help doesn’t make you weak. You’ll come away with a blunt yet reassuring reminder: you’re allowed to say no, question authority and choose what happens to your body and your work.
So where might you be handing over your power that you could start taking back today?
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