Where this has turned up
Press, podcasts and stages. If you're a journalist, producer or event organiser looking for a patient who actually uses this stuff and can talk about it without the violins, I'm happy to help.
I have stage 4 cancer — AI is how I took back control
Health Awareness. Written by me for Mediaplanet's Health Awareness supplement, distributed with the Guardian.
Read / listen → Interview · September 2026A 43-year-old with colon cancer used AI in 3 ways to help make treatment a little easier
Business Insider. How I use AI for symptom tracking, medication and my medical records.
Read / listen → Podcast · April 2026The Agentic Patient 2: One Tool, One Job — cancer management AI toolset
Faces of Digital Health. A long conversation about the tools I use alongside NHS treatment, and where they help.
Read / listen → Podcast · 2026Special episode: working with a health condition
Part-time Works (Timewise). On working through treatment, and what good employer practice actually looks like.
Read / listen → Main stage · June 2026, CopenhagenThe patient on the panel
HIMSS Europe. Speaking about patients, data and AI to a room full of health-tech.
Read the post →What I can talk about
- Living with stage 4 cancer and using AI every day to manage it
- Open sourcing your own medical data: why I did it, what happened, and the risks
- What AI in healthcare looks like from the patient's side, including where it falls short
- Working through treatment, and what employers get right and wrong
- Practical tools patients and carers can actually use
No "brave battle" framing, no miracle claims, and I'll tell you when something hasn't worked.
The short version
Russ Read-Barrow, 44, Bath. Stage 4 bowel cancer since 2021, still in treatment. Founder of FC:AI, where his full medical record is published openly, and of Known & Cited, an AI brand intelligence company. Nearly 20 years in PR and communications.
Photography, the one-page profile card and the full data set are all here: Open Source Me.