North London life coach wins 11 international awards for documentary
Pete Cohen from Hampstead Garden Suburb charted his wife's cancer journey
Hundreds of people became part of “Team Hannah”, raising money for urgent medical treatment in America and Germany for Hannah Bradley, who was suffering from an aggressive brain cancer.
Tragically, though the procedures worked for a time, Hannah died in 2023. But her widower, Pete Cohen, had filmed all the various stages in her treatment; and now Hannah’s Story, which has won documentary prizes in 11 international film festivals, will receive its world premiere screening in London on June 25.
Pete Cohen is a motivational speaker and life coach, brought up in Hampstead Garden Suburb and familiar to many from his numerous appearances on breakfast television.
Had it not been for the volcanic ash cloud in Iceland in April 2010, which effectively stopped air travel for six long days, Pete is doubtful whether his and Hannah’s lives would have coincided. But they did: the pair met at Heathrow Airport’s Ted Baker shop when Pete was on the way to a speaking engagement in Croatia.
To his surprise, the next day, Hannah, then a bright and pretty 27-year-old, was in the audience. They smiled at each other and, stuck in Croatia unable to travel, got to know each other well.
In 2011 Pete and Hannah were due to attend a social event in London and so arranged to stay at his parents’ home overnight. In the middle of the night, Hannah had “a major epileptic fit,” and was rushed to the Royal Free Hospital.
Pete says: “She had surgery at the Royal Free and the doctors told me — but not Hannah — that she didn’t have very long to live, 18 months or so”.
It became clear that Hannah would need to live in London in order to receive treatment. Though she had not been brought up Jewish, she was halachically Jewish through her maternal grandmother, and, says Pete, “it meant a lot to her to be part of the Jewish tribe”. A family friend found accommodation for her in jLiving, the Jewish Community Housing Association, in its Harmony Close complex.
Pete, knee-deep in research for a procedure which might save Hannah’s life, found a consultant in Texas, Dr Stanislaw Burzynski, who specialised in alternative cancer therapies. Under the banner of “Team Hannah”, Pete and Hannah’s family and friends began intensive fund-raising to get the couple to America and allow them to spend an extended time in Texas at the Burzynski Clinic.
But they also needed someone to oversee Hannah’s treatment from the UK. Pete approached “about 40 or 50 doctors and they all said no.” Finally, a friend introduced him to Dr Laurence Buckman, once chair of the British Medical Association and now president of the Jewish Medical Association, who agreed to supervise — “unexpected and beautiful support for us. He was a constant source of guidance, wisdom, and support throughout one of the most challenging periods of our lives”.
The couple returned from America filled with optimism about their future. Hannah had to have regular scans, but it seemed as though Dr Burzynski’s treatment had worked. They were happy, and got married, travelled, and Hannah began a small business making bespoke woven quilts.
During this period she had been advised to improve her diet, but, says Pete, “she couldn’t cook”. He approached Jewish food writer and chef Fabienne Viner Luzzato, who agreed to teach Hannah — which resulted in a delicious Team Hannah cookbook, available to supporters.
But the confidence was not to last. By 2021, in the middle of the Covid pandemic, a secondary brain cancer was detected — and this time “it really affected her walking and her speech.” She couldn’t face returning to America for more gruelling treatment and so Pete, desperate to find a solution, found a private doctor who told him about a radical programme in Dusseldorf, Germany.
His treatment involved putting viruses directly into the brain in order to shrink the tumours. And it worked. “This treatment was amazing. The scans showed that there was a major reduction in the size of the tumours, and she seemed to be making a complete recovery,”say s Pete.
That treatment took place in April 2022 — but by December of that year, both Pete and Hannah contracted Covid. “And after that things seemed to go downhill very, very fast.” Just a few months later, Hannah was in a hospice, and died in May 2023.
Pete Cohen says they will never know if Covid killed his wife, or whether it may be that her body simply couldn’t take the speed with which the aggressive brain cancer returned.
Right at the beginning of this terrible journey, hundreds of people helped to raise the quarter of a million pounds to pay for the Burzynski treatment in America. Pete says: “We wanted to share what people were doing, so every week we would sit on a bench in Harmony Close and record a weekly video. And I ended up with a lot of footage, and we carried on sharing the journey when we came back.”
In his devastation after Hannah’s death, Pete realised he had an enormous amount of film. A therapist advised him to find a way of celebrating her life; he decided to share the material with those Hannah had loved and who had supported her.
“I showed it to my friend Ben Shephard, the TV presenter, whom I have known for years. And he showed it to a friend of his, who said, why don’t you put an opening and a conclusion on it, and submit it to a film festival?”
Pete thought, why not, what have I got to lose? And so his film has now won prizes at 11 international festivals, including Cannes. It’s now included in one more, the Rain Dance film festival in London in which it has been nominated for best documentary.”
The premiere will be hosted by Ben Shephard and guests will include Kate Garraway, Dr Hilary Jones, Dr Laurence Buckman and Fabienne Viner Luzzato.
“Losing Hannah has been the most painful experience of my life,” says Pete. “But it has also transformed me. It forced me to stop. To reflect. To think differently about what really matters.
“And ultimately, that is Hannah’s legacy. Not just the extraordinary treatments, the remarkable recoveries, the medical publications, or even the film festivals.
“Her legacy is the reminder that life is not measured only by how long we live, but by how deeply we choose to live while we are here”.
You can watch Pete’s film at teamhannah.com
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