Tom's Talks

The Tom's Talks Podcast is a place where we speak to a vast array of people from different walks of life and find out what makes them them. We will speak about their unique journey and delve into the highs and the lows which ultimately define them.

⚠️ This episode discusses child loss and suicidal thoughts. If you're struggling, Samaritans are available 24/7 on 116 123.

Hugh was born on his dad's first wedding anniversary. He had the bluest eyes, the blondest hair, and a personality to match. Two weeks after his sixth birthday, he died - after a ten-month battle with a rare form of cancer that took hold in the middle of a Covid lockdown, while the family hid the diagnosis from almost everyone they knew.

Six days before Hugh passed away, he made his dad promise something: "Go run it, daddy. Go get the medal." Ceri kept that promise - running the London Marathon days after burying his son, crying for five and a half of the six hours, then placing the medal around Hugh's neck at the funeral home himself.

In this episode, Ceri sits down with Tom for one of the most raw, unflinching conversations this podcast has ever had - about watching a child fight cancer with more bravery than most adults could summon, the total absence of support for parents in that situation, and how he turned devastating grief into a campaign that's already changing UK employment law.

What we get into:

The moment a routine "tummy ache" became a cancer diagnosis, and the surreal 3am phone call that started it all
Life on a children's cancer ward - the bravery, the "beads of courage," and why Hugh accumulated over 2,400 of them
Why the physical treatment isn't the hardest part - it's the complete lack of support given to parents while their child is dying
The promise made six days before Hugh passed, and running the London Marathon with his son's shoes tied around his neck
Burying Hugh with the marathon medal - and what "turning pain into purpose" actually means when you live it
Founding the charity "It's Never You" - and the specific ways it supports parents financially and emotionally, including 48-hour crisis counselling
Hugh's Law: the campaign to give parents of seriously ill children the legal right to be at their bedside - and why it currently doesn't exist for children over one year old
The businesses (including Premier League football clubs) already backing the campaign, and what's blocking it from becoming law
Why nearly 50% of couples who lose a child split up - and how Ceri and his wife stayed together
The disclosure most parents are afraid to say out loud: is it selfish to ask for help when your child is the one who's sick?
What he wishes he'd known in Hugh's final two weeks, and the one thing - Legoland - he still regrets not doing
Giving up drinking, going to trauma therapy, and the small, physical tools he still uses to manage PTSD years later
What a "good life" means to him now, and the advice he gives every grieving parent who reaches out

Plus Tom on losing his brother Liam, the words he still regrets, and why he believes life happens for you, not to you.

This conversation will stay with you. Whether you've experienced loss, know someone going through it, or just need to hear from someone who found a way through the unthinkable — this is essential listening.

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Jack was five years old when he was diagnosed with Perthes disease - a rare condition that stops blood flow to the hip joint. By eighteen, his hips had essentially given up on him. He was told he'd need a double hip replacement eventually - but not until he was in his forties. He wasn't willing to wait that long. He couldn't.
In this episode, Jack takes us through five years of chronic pain, being turned away by specialist after specialist, and the moment he broke down in an appointment and finally heard a surgeon say yes. He's brutally honest about what nobody tells you — the physical grief of learning to walk again, the mental collapse that hit once the physical pain finally lifted, and why "but you're so young" might be the most frustrating sentence he's ever heard.
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"Happiness is a choice." Morgs Cox on the hard truths most people don't want
to hear — about discipline, money, your environment, and why getting in shape
is 90% mental.

Morgs is a fitness coach who built his brand from offering free sessions at 22
to running a team and coaching business out of Dubai. He's also one of Tom's
closest mates, which is why this one gets more honest than most.

We get into the mindset shift that changed everything for him, why he stopped
chasing the outcome and started obsessing over the inputs, and why he believes
the biggest investment you'll ever make is your own health. We talk about
outgrowing friendships when you're on a different path, what actually happens
to people who set New Year's resolutions, and the entrepreneur's curse of
never feeling like you've done enough.
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Claire Throssell lost both her sons, Jack and Paul, in the most unimaginable way — after a family court granted their father contact. This is her story,
and her warning.
⚠️ Content warning: this episode contains discussion of domestic abuse, coercive control, and the deaths of children. Please look after yourself while listening.
In this episode Claire sits down with Tom and talks with extraordinary
honesty about what she survived, what she lost, and what she has spent the years since fighting to change.
We talk about how domestic abuse actually begins — not with violence, but quietly, in ways that are almost impossible to see from the inside. Claire
explains coercive control and love-bombing in a way that will make a lot of people recognise their own relationship. We talk about being disbelieved. About what the family court did, and why she has campaigned so hard to change it. And about how she carries Jack and Paul with her every single day.
Claire's campaigning helped change the law. If you take one thing from this conversation, let it be that the warning signs are subtle — and that saying something early matters.
This is one of the most important conversations we have had on this podcast.

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"There will be times where I sit there and go — I can stop now, and nobody would know or probably even care."
That’s the moment most people quit. And according to Josh, it’s the exact moment discipline really starts.
Josh is a competitive bodybuilder and online physique coach who walked out of a cinema at 16, called a boxing club the next morning, and has trained ever since. He came dead last at his first bodybuilding show. Ten years later, he’s competing as an open heavyweight — and he’s learned a lot about discipline, mindset, body image and what the fitness industry gets wrong along the way.
This conversation goes beyond motivational quotes and hustle culture. We talk about what real discipline looks like when nobody is watching, the sacrifices behind competitive bodybuilding, the pressure to constantly improve your physique, and where the line sits between healthy discipline and becoming your own harshest critic.
Because sometimes the habits we call “discipline” can come from a much more complicated place.
An honest conversation about ambition, self-worth, body image, resilience and what it really takes to keep showing up.
Support the show
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