Future Food Freedom.

“As a survivor, I know the fears and challenges of eating again after treatment.

This framework is built from lived experience - to help you feel safe, confident, and truly back at the table.” – Yvonne McClaren

Want Clarity? Start Here

I help speech pathologists and dietitians bridge the gap between clinical recommendations and real-life eating for people with dysphagia. Through my BACK AT THE TABLE FRAMEWORK™️

I provide practical tools to reintroduce food with clarity, compassion, and confidence. No more guesswork or generic advice, just a clear, patient-centred path from tube to table that improves outcomes, restores dignity, and supports care that sticks beyond the clinic.

Well hello there...

I'm Yvonne,

With 10+ years creating educational events for industry bodies, I now consult for global brands bringing lived experience to clinicians, manufacturers, and organisations shaping dysphagia care at every level.

But honestly? I got tired of watching people miss out on the joy of eating while generic care plans ignored what really matters.

So in 2024, I backed myself. I turned my experience, clinical understanding, and unwavering belief in the power of social eating into a structured framework and built a business that lets me hike internationally and work with purpose on a global scale.

Now, I help others to get social or travel again after treatment with my BACK AT THE TABLE FRAMEWORK™️

I offer practical, evidence-based tools that lead to better care and better outcomes.

Explore The Framework

How Do You Get Back To Social Eating? - And Drinking?

My first glass of "personality" after treatment.

Resources Helping Clinicians

Tools for Clinicians Supporting Life After Head & Neck Cancer

Working with patients post-treatment can be rewarding but let’s be honest, it’s also complex.

Patients may disengage.

Plans aren’t followed.

Meals become isolated events instead of meaningful ones... and you’re left trying to motivate behaviour change while juggling clinical demands.

These resources are designed to help you bridge that gap.

Built from lived experience and professional insight, each tool is crafted to support you, the clinician navigating the human side of dysphagia care.

From patient motivation kits to social eating strategies, everything here is about making your work easier, more impactful, and more sustainable.

✅ Communicate with confidence

✅ Improve care plan adherence

✅ Support social and emotional recovery

✅ Save time with ready-to-use tools

Why Me & Why Now?

I am the creator of the publication GAG.| eating life which is an acronym for “Good As it Gets” and that’s pretty good given the alternative. Through story telling GAG.| eating life empowers individuals to redefine their relationship with food, travel, and life, no matter the obstacles they face.

Drawing on personal experience & practical strategies, I write about transforming setbacks into comebacks - one step, one bite, and one adventure at a time.

As a resilience specialist, I’m dedicated to helping people live fully, eat confidently, and embrace life’s challenges with courage and creativity.

A black & white head shot of a woman looking out contemplating with a pen in her hand ready to write.

What's Writing Got To Do With It?

I write about real adventures, real challenges and how I navigate them.

Practical Insights: Tips for hiking, travelling, and living fully with Dysphagia.

Exclusive Resources: Tools, guides, and personal strategies.

You can join me here GAG. | eating life here or reach out to find out how we might work together here

I'd love to find out more

“One of the nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is that we are doing and devote our attention to eating”

Luciano Pavarotti

FAQs

As a detail and strategy person resources here are developed to help others based on my lived experience. As a head and neck cancer survivor, a qualified chef, an event/project manager, foodie, writer, researcher, traveller and hiker - it's in my nature to be systemised, organised, prepared and ultimately successful.
That is my hope for you too.
I wrote these resources having been PEG tube fed for 15 months whilst eating very little orally. I was not able to manage thickened water.
I was determined to start eating real food and my dysphagia even today is still quite severe. It goes up and down. I took meticulous notes about my transitioning, what I did and what worked for me and this guide is the result of that research. So if your medical team has given you no reason not to try, these resources will help you determine the way forward.
Each and everyone of us is different in terms of healing and I found that having a pathway to follow, knowing what to do and trusting the process gave me confidence to try. It took me 3 whole months to fully transition to just oral eating. The confidence comes from having a step by step plan and practice. So it will take every person a different time frame based on their personal mind set and commitment to that practice. Give time, time as they say.
No. It's not a recipe book - we all manage food very differently.
The e - guide specifically includes a weekly meal preparation example (it was my personal meal planner) with ideas for you to consider your meal planning guide based on your particular circumstances. You can then build your subsequent food shopping list based on your meal planner.
It does not provide recipes for meals. Other than reference to the foundation foods being stock, sauce, soup and smoothies. It does refer to IDDSI and food textures which in conjunction with your Speech Language Pathologist you should be able to ascertain what recipes will work for you. This is not a recipe book it is a mind set program with staged steps to get you on the right path for eating.
This treatment as we know is an emotional minefield.
The scope of this guide & other resources does not include material for psychological assistance. I would highly recommend seeking help in that specific area should you feel the need. I used meditation, journaling and hiking to get me through the very dark days and sometimes they still appear.
I do include some tips on social eating, what to say to others, how to manage being in public and talk about elevator pitches and JAM cards. The point of having the guide is to arm you with the basics as to how you can incorporate food back into your life. Each different scenario will likely bring different levels of anxiety and frustration. Being consciously aware of these times, knowing they are coming and being prepared is half the battle.

THE GAG EFFECT

Having someone that I can relate to after coming out on the other side of HNC - there really is not much of a space for this. Everything seems geared towards breast cancer or other more prominent ones and not to compare, but as my oncologist said that is a cakewalk compared to getting through this.

GAG. | eating life subscriber

I love reading about your travels and experiences living with your ‘new normal’. You give me inspiration since I am just at the 2-year mark since my diagnosis and recovery (tonsillar cancer). Learning to eat again (I had an NG tube for a few weeks - not months like yourself with your PEG tube)

GAG.| eating life subscriber

Having been through such a difficult journey herself, Yvonne has a profound understanding of the physical and psychological hurdles around eating issues. This allows her to write with true empathy and provide knowledgeable insights. Her content educates, comforts, and inspires in equal measure.

J.Rieger PhD

Your work is valuable because it shows that there is still a great life to be had after head and neck cancer treatments. You demonstrate that we can still achieve our dreams even though we have to adjust to new ways of managing our eating challenges.

Future Food Freedom.

Well hello there...

How Do You Get Back To Social Eating? - And Drinking?