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Speaker 1: This is jam Nation with jonesyd Our next.

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Speaker 2: Guest became a household name when he appeared on X

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Speaker 2: Factor in twenty eleven.

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Speaker 3: Here he is here.

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Speaker 4: To have some fun. Can you get me some of that?

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Speaker 1: Jong Chuck?

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Speaker 3: Can I get a scoop in?

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Speaker 1: BBT can ride?

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Speaker 4: And McCook you make.

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Speaker 3: But even it's so good.

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Speaker 2: Johnny Ruffo has been a love member of the Home

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Speaker 2: and Away Cast.

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Speaker 3: He's two of the likes of One Direction with his music.

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Speaker 2: We see you Johnny at many Save our Son's charity events.

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Speaker 2: You're a giant supporter of theirs. But off screen you've

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Speaker 2: been having the battle of your life. Diagnosed with brain

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Speaker 2: cancer in twenty seventeen, you've just announced that that's it's terminal.

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Speaker 2: You've written a fabulous book called No Finish Line, and

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Speaker 2: even just from the minute you've arrived in the studio,

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Speaker 2: you've been cracking jokes and it's great to see you.

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Speaker 2: Johnny Ruffo, How are you?

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Speaker 1: I'm good?

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Speaker 3: You were going to say it, won't you, But the

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Speaker 3: minute you walked in here you said, we said, how

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Speaker 3: I've got cancer? We go, yes, we know you are

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Speaker 3: a raza from way back.

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Speaker 1: I am so I can't help it because I used

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Speaker 1: to be a trade, so I'm always cracking jokes and

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Speaker 1: just taking the.

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Speaker 3: Mickey, always taking the mickey.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're in an incredible position to write a book

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Speaker 2: talking about your shifting perspective. It's a very cheeky, very

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Speaker 2: funny book. But you do say that this diagnosis has

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Speaker 2: changed your perspective and not all of that's been bad.

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Speaker 1: No, Well, I guess for me, you have to live

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Speaker 1: life to the fullest no matter what life throws at you.

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Speaker 1: And it's thrown me this I hate to use an americanism,

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Speaker 1: but it's thrown me this major curve ball and or

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Speaker 1: bouncer perhaps for cricket. Right, you've adapted that and try

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Speaker 1: and hit it for six. But it's difficult, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's it's not easy. But I'm just taking it in

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Speaker 1: my stride and doing what i can with it.

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Speaker 2: Your career, you said you're a trade. Was it out

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Speaker 2: of the blue that you you auditioned for X Factor?

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Speaker 2: How did it all start?

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Speaker 1: Well? I love music from as young as I can remember,

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Speaker 1: and I was in a band called Super and Nova

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Speaker 1: and they were the ones that encouraged me to audition.

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Speaker 1: They're like, oh, you should totally audition for X Factors

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Speaker 1: right up your alley, and I'm like no. And then

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Speaker 1: one day I was driving around and I thought maybe

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Speaker 1: I should just pop into the audition Joint as.

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Speaker 4: It's called, right, that's the technical name for It's called

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Speaker 4: the audition.

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Speaker 3: Aud There, the audition Joint is it's not surprised.

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Speaker 4: That's most hated place in the world.

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Speaker 3: In the front door, out the back.

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Speaker 4: That's it.

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Speaker 1: So I went in there and I was literally the

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Speaker 1: last person. They said we were literally just about to

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Speaker 1: shut shot for audition entries. So I was the very

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Speaker 1: last person to get through, and I was sitting there

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Speaker 1: for hours on end, and I was finally the room

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Speaker 1: was full. There was probably hundreds and hundreds, if not

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Speaker 1: over a thousand people in there, and it just started

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Speaker 1: to whittle away, and they all just started to, you know,

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Speaker 1: whittle away, and then there was just me sitting there

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Speaker 1: and I was the last person. I had some leather

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Speaker 1: jacket on, probably looked like a dick.

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Speaker 4: I wear a leather jacket all the time.

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Speaker 3: What do you say but you can't sing?

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Speaker 4: Well, he knows exactly what doesn't mean. And then he

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Speaker 4: went in and blitzed it.

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Speaker 1: Well, I don't know if I blitzed it, I just

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Speaker 1: I probably got through by the skin of my teeth.

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Speaker 1: But initially you don't audition in front of the four judges,

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Speaker 1: so you go through there's a process. You go through

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Speaker 1: the producers first, and then once you get through the

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Speaker 1: first set of producers, you go through another set of

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Speaker 1: producers with a vocal coach, and there's several people there.

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Speaker 1: The first room you go through, there's two producers, and

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Speaker 1: then the second room it's almost pitch black. You can't

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Speaker 1: see anyone, and I'm singing. The first song I sung

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Speaker 1: was Summer of sixty nine. I remember that. I can't

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Speaker 1: quite remember what the second song I sung was because

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Speaker 1: I have brain cancer.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, well you didn't have but you didn't have it

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Speaker 4: back then, though.

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Speaker 3: You need to know he's smiling what he's saying, because yeah.

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Speaker 4: That's the thing, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: Well. The surgeon who operated on me said, you could

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Speaker 1: have had it anywhere between two and ten years because

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Speaker 1: of the size of it, or it could have been

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Speaker 1: growing anywhere between two and ten years. So I may

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Speaker 1: have had it back then, just didn't know about it.

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Speaker 3: And you knew about it when you got those extreme headaches.

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Speaker 3: You said it was like a blow torch in your head.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. The headaches were unbearable and tiny. Thank

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Speaker 1: God took me to the emergency department at RPA, and

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Speaker 1: that's where they discovered that it was a brain tumor.

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Speaker 3: And if you hadn't gone in that night, you wouldn't

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Speaker 3: have survived the night.

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Speaker 1: No, I wouldn't have woken up the next morning. So

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Speaker 1: I will still be sleeping now.

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Speaker 3: And at the beginning, they said, it's you know, three years,

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Speaker 3: you're now coming up to six. And I know there's

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Speaker 3: a big challenge ahead of you, but you've said you

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Speaker 3: see those years as a gift. You've been given these

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Speaker 3: extra years.

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Speaker 1: Well, I did the worst thing that you could possibly do,

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Speaker 1: Like you look up jump on Google. Oh, it's the

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Speaker 1: worst thing you do, you know, Like I've got to

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Speaker 1: sow elbow. You look at elbow.

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Speaker 4: Oh great, I've got three weeks left to the elbow cancer.

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Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, it's not funny. No, I've got brain cancer.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I know. No, one, it's not funny.

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Speaker 5: No. But if you don't google, you shouldn't google. But

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Speaker 5: then again, in your case, we were at a function.

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Speaker 5: Remember we're to save our son's function, and this was

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Speaker 5: like before twenty seventeen, and you said I've got a headache,

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Speaker 5: and I said.

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Speaker 4: We'll drink more water. You gotta drink more water. You

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Speaker 4: young guys don't drink water.

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Speaker 1: And you kept giving me drinks.

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Speaker 5: I kept water in it, but I never imagine.

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Speaker 4: And I've been on the journey with you, and it's

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Speaker 4: so like, you know, when I see you.

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Speaker 5: I say, and how we And you said I'm out

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Speaker 5: of the woods, and I was.

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Speaker 4: I was so.

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Speaker 1: Happy at that time. Sorry to cut you on.

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Speaker 4: No, no you.

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Speaker 1: At that time, I think they had given me, not

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Speaker 1: the green line, but they had given me the like

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Speaker 1: the term remission was thrown at me. And I'm like, oh,

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Speaker 1: like it was the weight of the world was taken

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Speaker 1: off your shoulders. I can't explain how elated I hadn't

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Speaker 1: felt so like I was. Honestly, I'm on a loss

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Speaker 1: for words how I felt.

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Speaker 4: But you would have been relieved.

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Speaker 1: You would have been, oh my god.

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Speaker 5: And I was like, as your friend, I was like, oh,

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Speaker 5: you know, that's one less thing I have to worry about.

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Speaker 5: Johnny's going to be okay. And then you keep coming

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Speaker 5: back in, you know, and the news, and you just think, oh, man,

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Speaker 5: like this is for me, it must be. How do

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Speaker 5: you feel?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Right, I can't even find the words to describe

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Speaker 1: how it's just one it's not just one less thing

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Speaker 1: to worry about. I don't have to, you know, tie

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Speaker 1: my shoelaces today. You know, I don't have to do

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Speaker 1: chemo every other day or every other week. And I'm

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Speaker 1: not going to lose my hair, not that that's a

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Speaker 1: big thing, Like I don't care. Losing your hair is

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Speaker 1: nothing compared to having to go through the rigmarole of

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Speaker 1: having to do a chemo and MRIs and CT scans

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Speaker 1: and then the anxiety of waiting for those results is

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Speaker 1: the worst part, like I cannot even explain.

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Speaker 3: So it's a physical journey, but a mental one too.

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Speaker 1: The mental strain is almost worse than the physical strain.

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Speaker 3: But you've done it all with such good grace and

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Speaker 3: such cheeky humor. And I know you attribute a lot

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Speaker 3: of that to your relationship with Tany as well. But

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Speaker 3: this book is filled with the pure essence of you.

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Speaker 1: I think that's what I wanted to capture though, And

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Speaker 1: I was saying to somebody yesterday, she almost wrote half

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Speaker 1: the book because I couldn't remember what happened for most

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Speaker 1: of some I'm constantly going back to her saying what

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Speaker 1: actually happened here because I was out of it, I

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Speaker 1: think for most of these. So she helped me more

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Speaker 1: than I remember with this, and she's been through so

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Speaker 1: much that I don't remember. Like there's so many times

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Speaker 1: that we're just laying in bed and I'm like, like,

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Speaker 1: we'll chat and I'm like, oh my god, baby, I'm

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Speaker 1: so sorry I had to go through that, and she'll

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Speaker 1: tell me things that I didn't even know, and it

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Speaker 1: breaks my heart to hear what she had to go

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Speaker 1: through when I'm just like out of it, and she's like,

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Speaker 1: I had to hold your hand whilst you were going

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Speaker 1: through eleven siegures when you were just in a normal ward,

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Speaker 1: and every time you were going through a seizure, I

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Speaker 1: had to notify the nurses or the doctors because they

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Speaker 1: just didn't have enough staff on. And that's when they

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Speaker 1: transferred me to the ICU, because there's a doctor or

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Speaker 1: a nurse on at all times. And I'm like, oh god, bab,

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Speaker 1: I didn't even know you had to do that. So

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Speaker 1: she was almost like a nurse and it was horrible.

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Speaker 1: I was like babe. I didn't know you had to

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Speaker 1: sit there with me and watch me go through every

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Speaker 1: seizure because if if I had to do that with her,

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Speaker 1: but nah, while she was unconscious. But I don't think

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Speaker 1: this is working.

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Speaker 3: I'm off for a coffee and what can we do?

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Speaker 4: What can I do for you? Do you need anything?

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Speaker 4: What do you need? Do you need to start a coffee?

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Speaker 3: And you've got a book?

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Speaker 4: You've got a book.

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Speaker 3: The book is called No Finish Line. It's extreme because you're.

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Speaker 4: A great We want to we want to help you.

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Speaker 4: I'd like to do something. What do you need like anything?

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Speaker 4: Just like audi? Do you need an audio? Or a

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Speaker 4: what a you know one of those that's coming into

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Speaker 4: a spring?

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Speaker 1: An? Have you seen like thewenty years old?

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Speaker 3: Not a hoodie? And he wants to wrap you in

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Speaker 3: like a blanket.

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Speaker 4: I just want to look after you. I want to

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Speaker 4: think about you, a man to make you what about

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Speaker 4: a bone broth?

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Speaker 3: Look sure, we will do which we can. We will

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Speaker 3: give you our love and we will buy you a hug.

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Speaker 1: Johnny, just the coffee is fine.

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Speaker 3: It's a man of simple man.

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Speaker 5: No Finish Line is written by Johnny ruff Raffa. It's

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Speaker 5: on sale now in all good bookstores and online, Johnny.

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Speaker 1: Not bad bookstores, all stores.

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Speaker 3: All stores, bad ones and good ones and good.

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Speaker 1: Why do they say that it's only sold in all

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Speaker 1: good bookstores. I keep asking Tany, and.

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Speaker 3: She's like, it's in all the other ones as well.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's everyone.

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Speaker 1: It's a ship book store, That's what i'd call mine.

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Speaker 4: And ship bookstore's everywhere, Johnny. Thank you,