ONCOLOGY NUTRITION
Personalised, evidence-informed nutritional support throughout your cancer journey.
Important: this service provides nutritional therapy alongside oncology care. It does not diagnose, treat or cure cancer, neutropenia or treatment complications, and it does not replace advice, monitoring or treatment from your oncology team.
A cancer diagnosis can change almost everything overnight - and food can suddenly become another source of uncertainty.
You may be wondering what you should eat, what you should avoid, whether particular foods or supplements are safe, how to nourish yourself when treatment affects your appetite or digestion, or what you can do to support your health once treatment has finished.
You don't have to navigate those questions alone.
I provide personalised nutritional support for people with breast and ovarian cancer before, during and after treatment, as part of their wider healthcare journey. A key part of this work is providing practical nutritional guidance when treatment changes your appetite, food tolerance, digestion or ability to maintain adequate food and fluid intake.
My work is designed to complement mainstream medical care, not replace it. Where appropriate, I work alongside your oncologist, consultant, GP and wider healthcare team.
Nutritional support at every stage
WHERE SPECIALIST NUTRITIONAL SUPPORT CAN BRIDGE A GAP
Your oncology team is responsible for diagnosing, treating and monitoring your cancer. My role is different and complementary: I can spend time looking closely at how treatment is affecting your ability to eat and nourish yourself, and at the practical nutritional questions that may sit outside the main focus of an oncology appointment.
That may include reviewing food and fluid intake, protein and energy intake, appetite, taste changes, digestive tolerance, weight or body-composition concerns, existing results, medications and treatment, and the safety and appropriateness of any supplements you are considering.
Where private nutritional or functional testing is considered, it is only used where it is appropriate, safe and likely to add useful nutritional information. It is not used to diagnose or monitor cancer, replace oncology investigations or claim to identify the cause of treatment complications.
If a symptom, blood result or treatment side effect requires medical assessment or management, your oncology or medical team remains the appropriate point of care.
Your nutritional needs can change throughout your cancer journey. The support you need before treatment may be very different from what you need during treatment or in the months and years afterwards.
That's why I don't use a generic 'cancer diet'. Your recommendations are personalised around your diagnosis, treatment, symptoms, health history, nutritional needs, lifestyle and the advice of your medical team.
BEFORE TREATMENT
If you're preparing for treatment, we can focus on helping you enter that stage as well nourished and supported as possible.
Depending on your individual circumstances, we may consider nutritional adequacy, protein, energy intake, hydration, digestive health and practical preparation for the changes treatment may bring.
DURING TREATMENT
Cancer treatment can affect far more than your appetite. Side effects can influence what you can eat, how well you tolerate food, your digestion, energy, strength, sleep and your overall quality of life.
A key part of my work during treatment is helping you adapt food and fluid intake to your individual circumstances, with attention to nutritional adequacy, protein and energy intake, hydration and the practical eating difficulties that treatment can create. Any supplement advice is individualised and considered in the context of your treatment, medications and potential interactions.
Depending on your treatment and individual needs, support may include practical strategies around nausea, appetite changes, taste and smell changes, mouth soreness or dry mouth, constipation, diarrhoea, reflux, digestive discomfort, fatigue, hydration, maintaining protein and energy intake, limiting unwanted weight and muscle loss, and supporting nutritional adequacy and normal immune function.
Your needs may change from one treatment cycle to the next, so your plan isn't static. We can adapt your nutrition and lifestyle strategies as treatment progresses and as your symptoms, food tolerance and priorities change.
The aim is not simply to tell you what constitutes a healthy diet. It's to help you eat, nourish yourself and function as well as possible during treatment, while working alongside the care and advice you receive from your oncology team.
Any nutritional or supplement recommendations are considered carefully in the context of your treatment, medications and medical care.
AFTER TREATMENT
Finishing treatment can bring a new set of questions. You may want to rebuild strength, improve your nutrition, regain confidence around food and take a proactive approach to your longer-term health.
We can create a sustainable nutrition and lifestyle strategy that supports recovery, strength, healthy body composition and overall wellbeing, while remaining appropriate to your individual medical history and ongoing care.
For some people, treatment-related symptoms and changes in appetite, digestion, energy or body composition continue after active treatment has ended. These can also form part of your personalised nutritional support as you recover and rebuild.
SUPPORTING QUALITY OF LIFE THROUGH TREATMENT
Treatment can be physically and emotionally demanding. Nutritional therapy does not treat cancer or treatment side effects. My role is to help you adapt your food, fluid and eating routine when treatment makes maintaining a balanced and adequate diet more difficult.
Our work can respond to what is happening for you now - whether that's finding tolerable foods on difficult days, adapting meals around digestive symptoms, supporting hydration, maintaining protein and energy intake, or rebuilding nutrition between treatment cycles.
Where symptoms require medical assessment or treatment, I will always encourage appropriate input from your oncology or healthcare team. My role is complementary and focused on nutritional and lifestyle support.
You may be looking for help with:
+ Knowing what to eat after a cancer diagnosis
+ Preparing nutritionally for treatment
+ Eating well during chemotherapy, radiotherapy or other treatment
+ Maintaining adequate energy and protein intake
+ Supporting muscle and strength
+ Changes in appetite, taste or smell
+ Nausea and difficulty eating
+ Mouth soreness or dry mouth where relevant
+ Constipation, diarrhoea, reflux or digestive discomfort
+ Hydration when intake is difficult
+ Adapting food choices between treatment cycles
+ Nutritional and lifestyle strategies to provide practical nutritional support during treatment
+ Digestive symptoms and food tolerance
+ Unintentional weight loss or changes in body composition
+ Fatigue and reduced energy
+ Understanding whether supplements are appropriate
+ Sorting evidence-based advice from confusing or frightening information online
+ Nutrition after treatment
+ Rebuilding strength and confidence
+ Supporting long-term health and wellbeing
+ Maintaining nutritional adequacy during chemotherapy
+ Targeted, personalised supplement support during treatment where appropriate
+ Practical nutrition between treatment cycles
EVIDENCE-INFORMED, PERSONALISED SUPPORT
Cancer nutrition is an area where misinformation can be particularly confusing - and sometimes potentially harmful.
My role is to help you make sense of nutrition in a way that is evidence-informed, practical and appropriate to your individual circumstances.
I am trained in Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel's Systems Approach to Cancer, which informs my work supporting people with breast and ovarian cancer.
I work within my professional scope and alongside mainstream medical care. Nutritional therapy does not replace cancer treatment or the advice of your oncology team.
NUTRITIONAL SUPPORT DURING CHEMOTHERAPY
Chemotherapy can suppress bone marrow function and reduce white blood cells, including neutrophils. Neutropenia requires monitoring and management by your oncology team. If it occurs, I take the medical advice, treatment context and relevant results into account when considering the safety and appropriateness of nutritional or supplement recommendations.
Where appropriate, supplement recommendations may be considered where there is a clear nutritional rationale. They are individualised and checked against treatment, medications, nutritional status, relevant results and potential interactions. Supplements are not presented as a treatment for cancer, neutropenia or other treatment complications.
If neutrophil or other blood-cell counts are affected, your oncology team remains responsible for their medical management. Relevant results may form part of the wider clinical context when I personalise nutritional advice within my professional scope. This work takes place alongside oncology care and medical monitoring. Neutropenia requires appropriate monitoring and management by your oncology team, and nutritional therapy does not replace medical treatment for neutropenia or infection.
SUPPLEMENTS DURING THE CANCER JOURNEY
Supplement advice may form part of my work where there is a clear nutritional rationale and it is appropriate in the context of your treatment and medications.
Recommendations are individual rather than based simply on a cancer diagnosis. I consider your nutritional status, symptoms, diet, treatment plan, medications and wider circumstances when deciding whether a supplement may be appropriate.
During chemotherapy, my priority is maintaining an appropriate nutritional approach as far as possible. Any supplement recommendation is individualised and is not presented as a treatment for cancer, neutropenia or treatment side effects.
Where blood counts, including neutrophils, are affected during chemotherapy, your oncology team remains responsible for medical monitoring and management. I take relevant results and medical advice into account when considering the safety and appropriateness of nutritional or supplement recommendations.
Supplement safety is particularly important during cancer treatment. Some supplements may interact with medication or treatment, or may be unsuitable at particular doses or stages. I therefore consider the appropriateness, timing and potential interactions of recommendations carefully and, where necessary, they can be discussed or coordinated with your oncology or medical team.
The aim isn't to give you a long list of supplements because you have cancer. It's to use targeted supplementation intelligently and appropriately, where it may add value, as one part of a personalised strategy to support you throughout treatment.
PRIVATE TESTING, WHERE APPROPRIATE
Depending on your individual circumstances, existing medical results and stage of treatment, additional private testing may sometimes provide useful nutritional or functional information.
Testing is never used as a substitute for oncology investigations, diagnosis, monitoring or medical treatment.
Where appropriate and within my professional scope, I can recommend private functional or nutritional testing if I believe the information could genuinely help guide your nutritional strategy.
The Transformational Programme includes one functional test, selected according to your individual needs and only where appropriate in the context of your wider medical care. In the Essential and Complete programmes, any private testing recommended is discussed separately.
SUPPORT ACROSS THE WHOLE JOURNEY
Everything I do is centred around understanding the bigger picture and helping you move from simply managing symptoms towards building lasting health.
THE VITALITY METHOD
My overall framework remains personalised to you, but during cancer care it is always applied within the context of your medical treatment and individual needs.
YOUR 1 : 1 PROGRAMME
Cancer nutrition support is a specialist area of my practice and is priced separately from my standard programmes. The right level of support will depend on your individual circumstances and where you are in your cancer journey. If you're unsure, I recommend booking a Health Transformation Call before choosing your programme.
Your complimentary Health Transformation Call is a relaxed, no-obligation conversation where we can briefly discuss what's going on with your health, what you'd like to change and the kind of support you're looking for. I'll explain how I work and help you decide which programme may be most appropriate for you. It isn't a clinical consultation, and there's no obligation to proceed.
ESSENTIAL CANCER SUPPORT
£788
+ 4 personalised 1:1 consultations
+ Suitable for focused nutritional support around a particular stage or concern.
+ Initial in-depth consultation
+ 3 follow-up consultations
+ Personalised nutrition and lifestyle recommendations
+ Practical support around your current nutritional needs
+ Supplement advice where appropriate and safe
+ Private testing recommendations where appropriate
+ Ongoing review and refinement
COMPLETE CANCER SUPPORT
£1,155
+ 7 personalised 1:1 consultations
+ Suitable if you'd benefit from more consistent support as your needs change across treatment, recovery or longer-term wellbeing.
+ Initial in-depth consultation
+ 6 follow-up consultations
+ Personalised nutrition and lifestyle strategy
+ Ongoing adaptation around changing needs
+ Private testing recommendations where appropriate
+ Personalised, targeted supplement advice where appropriate and safe
+ Regular review and refinement
+ Longer-term support and accountability
TRANSFORMATIONAL CANCER SUPPORT
£2,700
+ 12 personalised 1:1 consultations + one functional test
+ My most comprehensive level of support for clients who would benefit from longer-term nutritional guidance and a deeper exploration of relevant aspects of their health.
+ Comprehensive initial consultation
+ 11 follow-up consultations
+ One functional test included, selected according to your individual needs and where appropriate
+ Personalised nutrition and lifestyle strategy
+ Personalised, targeted supplement recommendations where appropriate and safe
+ Regular review and refinement
+ Long-term support through changing stages of your health journey
Frequently asked questions
YOU DON'T HAVE TO NAVIGATE NUTRITION ALONE
When you're dealing with cancer, food shouldn't become another source of fear or confusion.
My aim is to give you a calm, personalised and evidence-informed approach to nutrition so you can feel more confident about how you're nourishing yourself at each stage of your journey.
If you're ready to begin, you can choose your programme and book your first consultation.
If you're unsure whether nutritional therapy is appropriate for you right now, or which programme would best suit your needs, book a free Health Transformation Call and we'll talk it through.
Website compliance note: Nutritional therapy is complementary to, and not a replacement for, appropriate medical diagnosis, monitoring or treatment. Health information on this website is general and educational. Individual recommendations are made within professional scope. No outcome is guaranteed.