Siobhan Shaw Launches Cancer Bites Podcast While Leading National Food Security Initiative
TL;DR
Cancer Bites provides patients and advocates with honest cancer conversations that build resilience and community support for navigating difficult diagnoses.
Growing to Give's food forest model grows community resilience through sustainable agriculture while Cancer Bites uses podcasting to create supportive cancer conversations.
Siobhan Shaw's work with Growing to Give and Cancer Bites creates communities where people find nourishment, connection, and hope during life's toughest challenges.
From creating the nation's largest food forest to launching a raw, funny cancer podcast, Siobhan Shaw turns personal challenges into powerful community movements.
Siobhan Shaw, founder of both the Cancer Bites podcast and the Growing to Give nonprofit organization, is creating spaces for honest conversation about metastatic breast cancer while simultaneously leading one of the nation's largest food security initiatives. Diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer in June 2025 with a six-year prognosis, Shaw has channeled her personal health journey into creating Cancer Bites, a platform that redefines how patients, caregivers, and advocates discuss terminal illness.
The Cancer Bites podcast features candid, unfiltered conversations that range from raw to humorous, addressing treatment, identity, hope, and the awkward things people say when confronted with cancer. Shaw describes the platform as born from her need to turn pain into power and laugh through the chaos that cancer brings. The initiative quickly evolved from a Facebook page created last September into a full podcast and community movement for those tired of conventional cancer narratives.
Simultaneously, Shaw continues her work with Growing to Give, the nonprofit she co-founded that operates the largest food forest in the nation. The organization, which began in 2020 with seeds sprouting in spirals, now grows 100,000 pounds of food annually for communities in need. Based in Washington State and Arizona, Growing to Give focuses on community food security through initiatives like the Phoenix Food Forest Initiative, which transforms empty lots and sidewalks into productive food-growing spaces.
The connection between Shaw's dual missions lies in her philosophy of community resilience. Just as Growing to Give demonstrates that communities can grow nourishment and resilience together, Cancer Bites builds emotional resilience through honest conversation and shared experience. Shaw's personal cancer journey includes significant medical challenges, including fluid buildup in her lung that required 16 weekly thoracenteses, but she emphasizes that living with stage four cancer means focusing on life, laughter, and purpose rather than cure.
Cancer Bites is expanding into live conversations, collaborations, and bite-sized video series that mix storytelling with survivorship, advocacy, and what Shaw calls laughter therapy. The platform features guest voices from patients, caregivers, and medical professionals discussing what it means to live with cancer rather than just fight it. Listeners can access the podcast through the Growing to Give YouTube channel and join the community via the Cancer Bites Facebook page.
For those interested in supporting either initiative, volunteer and donation opportunities are available through GrowingtoGive.org, while Cancer Bites support includes their Titty Committee for production assistance and sponsorship opportunities for both community gardens and their holiday gift bag campaign for breast cancer patients. Shaw's work demonstrates how personal health challenges can fuel broader community impact, creating spaces where food security and emotional support grow alongside each other.
Curated from citybiz