Croydon cancer carer uses poetry to help other carers after his life was turned upside down

By Tara O’Connor, local democracy reporter 

When his mum was diagnosed with cancer Darren Randon’s life was turned upside down.

On top of the stress of worrying for his mum’s health, Darren, 35, became her part-time carer.

She was diagnosed with a rare cancer of the liver in 2017 when she was 49. Darren cut down his hours working for a Croydon charity to look after her.

Even his passion of poetry fell by the wayside as he looked after the house with his younger brother who was in his final year of university.

“I didn’t see myself as a carer, my mum needed help,” Darren said. “I was fortunate enough to have a part time job to have the flexibility to put my mum first.

“A lot of it was just household things like cooking for her and cleaning and going shopping, there was a part where she was bedbound so I had to be a bit more present.”

After around a year of treatment, Darren’s mum recovered from cancer and now Darren is using his experience to help other cancer patients and carers through poetry.

He set up Well Versed Ink with his friend Justine Agbowu in 2014,  hosting poetry workshops and events for people of all ages.

Earlier this year, thanks to an almost £10,000 from Macmillan Cancer Support, Darren, who is from Croydon, launched a series of free workshops, enabling people to share their cancer experiences using poetry.

The sessions started in January and were held online due to the pandemic.

He said: “It has been challenging for cancer carers and patients, there was a lot of fear around being told they should be shielding but still had to go into medical appointments in different locations and to take public transport.

“There were also delays, there was one person who they actually tried to discharge when they were due to have scans to say they had the all clear.

“Fortunately they were able to advocate for themselves, something I don’t think everyone would be able to do.”

And it was through these workshops that Darren was able to process his own experience of being a cancer carer.

His poem, Recipe for How to Care for Mum, starts with the words “take a dash of belief”.

He said: “I didn’t actually process it at the time. I went through a complete lull in creativity it wasn’t until doing these sessions that I was able to start processing the experiences around that time.

“It was amazing to be able to write that poem, it allowed me the opportunity to actually process what happened. My mum really loved it too, she said she was really touched.”

Darren’s mum is also a volunteer for Macmillan and it was through talking to her that he came up with the idea of using poetry as a tool for improving wellbeing.