# He has stage four colon cancer. AI gives him back some control

> Russ Read-Barrow built a small set of AI habits to track chemo side effects, remember his consultant, and skip the medical admin.
- Title: He has stage four colon cancer. AI gives him back some control
- Summary: Russ Read-Barrow built a small set of AI habits to track chemo side effects, remember his consultant, and skip the medical admin. You will not remember how…
- Keywords: colon cancer, chronic illness, ai tools, chemotherapy, patient care, business, technology, stage, four, colon, cancer, gives
- Source: Business Insider — https://businessinsider.com/man-with-colon-cancer-uses-ai-to-manage-his-symptoms-2026-9
- Author: Kim Schewitz
- Published: 2026-09-13T10:30:01.292+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: colon cancer, chronic illness, ai tools, chemotherapy, patient care, business, technology
## Five years, stage four
Russ Read-Barrow, 43, a former PR director and father of two in the UK, was diagnosed in 2021 after seeing blood in his poop about six times in a few weeks.
## Held, not cured
Chemo and surgeries on his colon, liver and lungs have stopped the spread since 2022. He still needs chemo roughly every three months to slow the growth.

> The chemo I'm having now is doing a good job of keeping it under control, but at some point that'll change
## A blog called FcancerwithAI
In 2025 he started sharing his story and the AI tools he built for himself. His pitch is modest on purpose: no cure, just less chaos.

> I'm not saying AI is going to cure cancer. I'm saying it's going to help me remember what my consultant said
## Why it matters now
Colon cancer in under-50s has climbed since the mid-1990s and is the deadliest cancer in that group, but early detection means more people live with it as a chronic illness.
## Voice notes plus a WHOOP
He recorded a 30-second symptom note every day for three chemo cycles, added tracker data, and asked Claude to find the pattern. Day four was when he crashed.

> If you see that over time happening again and again, you can sort of deal with it better because you know it's going to come
## Ten things to remember
Before each new round he asks the AI for ten reminders from his own logs. One surfaced an anti-nausea drug that had worked and he had forgotten.

> You don't keep a record, you won't remember. You think you will, but give it three months and life will take over
## One hub for the records
He loaded his medical history into Gemini Notebook, pulls test results in seconds, and keeps a 500-word summary to hand over instead of retelling it all.

> I've got terminal cancer. What's the worst that can bloody happen?
## Key takeaway

You will not remember how treatment felt three months ago, so record it, then let AI find the pattern you are living inside.