Four, Three, Two, One

That, in its simplest form, is what happened at Lighthouse Poole between 2 and 4 September 2026.

And just like that, the three days of the Not Dead Yet? residency are over. It feels slightly strange writing that.

For months, these three days existed in my head as plans, lists, emails, conversations, applications, funding requests, materials to gather and endless questions about whether the idea I had imagined would actually work once there were real people sitting together in a room.

Then, on Wednesday morning, we arrived at Lighthouse Poole.

We didn't really know one another. We were brought together by two things: cancer and creativity, and by Friday afternoon we left as collaborators.

What happened in the room? There was making, writing, clay, conversation, experimentation, sharing ideas, and beginning to discover the themes each artist might want to explore.

There was laughter. Quite a lot of laughter, actually, and dark humour too, because sometimes that is part of living with cancer, and there was no need to censor that in this room.

And there was cake and flapjacks, tea, coffee, and lunch too.

There were serious conversations alongside ridiculous ones. Moments of reflection alongside moments of play. Ideas were started, abandoned, changed, borrowed, questioned and developed.

Most importantly, nobody was expected to arrive with an answer. That was always part of the intention behind these three days.

Not Dead Yet? was never about gathering people in a room and asking them to make art about being ill. It was about creating a space where lived experience could sit alongside artistic practice; where people could be curious, experimental, honest, and where we could begin asking what happens when those experiences are explored through contemporary art.

Sometimes that meant talking about cancer, sometimes it didn't.

Cancer was the experience that had brought us together, but it wasn't the only thing we brought into the room. We brought our creative practices, our ideas, our different perspectives and our lives outside cancer.

Something happened over those three days that I couldn't have planned on a spreadsheet: relationships formed. People listened to one another, challenged one another, encouraged one another, making connections between ideas.

By Friday afternoon, nobody seemed particularly keen to leave. For me, that may have been one of the clearest signs that something had worked.

The residency reinforced something at the heart of Not Dead Yet?: people living with incurable cancer are not simply patients or subjects.

We are people first, with dreams, desires, and doubts... and we are also artists, makers, thinkers and collaborators with experiences and ideas worth bringing into cultural spaces.

Before anything else, I want to thank Lighthouse Poole, and particularly Nyah Boston-Shears, Creative Engagement Producer, for believing in my proposal and giving Not Dead Yet? the opportunity to become a Sanctuary 2026 residency.

An idea needs someone willing to take a chance on it before it can become something real, and I am incredibly grateful that Nyah and Lighthouse took that chance on mine.

I want to thank Rosie, Jeff and Keleigh-Marie for trusting me and this slightly unusual project enough to walk into that room and see what might happen.

Thank you for your openness, humour, generosity, curiosity and willingness to experiment.

Thank you also to Kathy Lett, who joined us for a thoughtful conversation about grief, emotions and the complicated landscape of living with incurable cancer.

And to Alex Szigeti, who moved quietly in and out of our three days documenting what was happening; the conversations, the making, the details and the moments we probably didn't even notice ourselves.

I can't wait to see the experience of the residency through your lens

The photos and videos I took only catch a glimpse of those three days.

I hope they show something that has always mattered to this project: people making, talking, experimenting, laughing, thinking and creating; people living their lives rather than being defined by a diagnosis.

At the beginning of the residency, we had one shared goal: to make artworks that challenge preconceived notions of life with incurable cancer.

We haven't made those artworks yet, what we have done is begun.

Some ideas are already emerging, others will change completely, and new ones will undoubtedly appear. Nothing needs to be neatly resolved yet.

The three days at Lighthouse gave us somewhere to begin. The next stage is about giving those ideas the time, materials and support they need to develop into work for Not Dead Yet? — The Exhibition.

And beyond that, the ambition remains much bigger: to continue developing collaborations, conversations, and opportunities for artists with lived experience, and to take the work beyond this first residency and exhibition.

Alongside developing the exhibition, Not Dead Yet? is taking another important step: we are recruiting two Founding Directors to help establish Not Dead Yet? as a Community Interest Company (CIC).

Becoming a CIC will give the project a proper structure from which to grow, helping us access funding streams and develop partnerships and collaborations with arts, health and community organisations.

I'm looking for two people who believe in what Not Dead Yet? is trying to build and who can bring the skills and experience needed to help turn this slightly unusual idea into something sustainable.

You don't need to have lived experience of cancer, or the arts.

If that sounds like you — or perhaps like somebody you know — you can read the full Founding Director role descriptions and find details of how to get involved follow the links below:

Finally, thank you to everyone who helped us get into that room in the first place.

To everyone who pledged to the crowdfunder, shared a post, sent an email, introduced me to someone, offered advice, encouraged an artist to apply, lent something, gave their time or simply said, keep going:

Thank you!

YOU helped make those three days possible.

There is still a great deal of work ahead of us (including raising the money needed to turn the ideas beginning to emerge into an exhibition) but something important happened at Lighthouse Poole.

Four strangers,

Three days,

Two things in common: cancer and creativity,

One goal!

Last week, we walked into a room as strangers. Three days later, we walked out as collaborators.

Not Dead Yet? is on its way!

If you'd like to help us take the next step towards the exhibition, you can support the ongoing Not Dead Yet? crowdfunding campaign

Until next time,