Finding Meaning in Life after 15 Years Battling Cancer | David Smith MBE
What happens when everything you’ve built your identity around—success, strength, achievement—is suddenly stripped away?
In this deeply moving episode of The Business Growth Podcast, David Smith MBE shares his remarkable story of resilience, recovery, and rediscovery after 15 years of living with cancer. David isn’t just a survivor. He’s a seven-time surgery veteran, a Paralympic gold medallist, and a man who’s redefined what it means to win at life.
From the outside, David’s story is about sport and survival. But listen closer, and it’s about something even greater – how to find meaning, gratitude, and connection when life tests you to your core.
“Cancer stripped away my identity. It forced me to ask: Who am I when there’s nothing left to prove?”
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- The truth about resilience – and why it’s not about strength, but surrender.
- How to live as a human being, not a human doing.
- The role of emotional intelligence in healing, leadership, and growth.
- Why awareness is the real gift—and how to use it to make better choices.
- The four legs of life – a simple model David uses to stay grounded.
- How to build a life that matters even when the plan falls apart.
David opens up about life in and out of hospital wards, the voices that kept him going, and the unexpected teachers he met along the way—including world-class coaches, Buddhist monks, and his own inner critic.
