Dec Pierce has had a tough couple of years. The Today FM presenter and creator of Block Rockin’ Beats – his dance music and live gigs show - had a brain haemorrhage in 2023 and last year was diagnosed with breast cancer.
On the latest episode of the Conversations with Parents podcast he tells host Jen Hogan about the shock of finding out about his diagnosis while on holiday with his wife and daughter.
“No-one’s going to believe that this could happen to a bloke,” he told his wife Kate ahead of going public with his breast cancer diagnosis. He shares his experience of having a mammogram as a man and his recovery from a full mastectomy. Pierce has also dealt with the isolation and loneliness of going through a cancer that’s typically associated with women.
“It was quite a lonely journey,” he tells me on the podcast. Pierce also shares how he spoke to his daughter about having cancer, and shares his feelings on having second major health scare so soon after his first one. “I was really angry,” he says, admitting he still feels like this sometimes.
Fatherhood is something Pierce always hoped to experience but he had thought it wasn’t going to happen for him. “Myself and Kate were trying for a while”, he explains. “I always wanted to be a dad. But I never thought I’d be blessed.”
He discusses the surprise of finding out he was going to be a dad when he had given up hope.
Maintaining a presence on social media means Pierce is well aware of its risks. “I know how toxic social media can be,” he says, admitting he worries about raising a daughter in the social media age. “I think we’ll handle that very carefully as she gets older. We’re so lucky the generation we grew up in where social media wasn’t a thing.”
Pierce was bullied in school and he’s conscious of his hypervigilance to this because of his own experience. “I’m very aware of that. I’m very aware that might not be the case for her. And I don’t want to put my worries, my stresses and my hang-ups from those days on her shoulders.”
“Sensory issues” and “fatigue” remain challenges since his brain haemorrhage. This is something he has to navigate both at work – where he adapts his routine to make things work for him – and in how he parents his active and energetic daughter too.
“If there is a busy day. Or a party. They’re the triggers,” he explains, sharing how his wife helped support him during his daughter’s recent birthday party when he began to feel the sensory overwhelm rising.
Pierce is the parent who does the school drop-offs and collections. He talks (rather dubiously, I suspect) about how he loves making the school lunches, his dishwasher loading-habits and the infamous class Whatsapp-group dramas.
You can listen to this episode on the player above, or search for Conversations with Parents wherever you get your podcasts.
Conversations with Parents is presented by Jen Hogan. This episode was produced by Andrew McNair.
Brought to you in association with Avonmore Super Milk.
