“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
Eating after treatment can feel impossible. I know - I’ve been there, afraid of every bite, every meal, every social table. But I got myself back to eating… and walking across Spain, carrying my pack, tasting local food, and living life fully again.
That journey is what inspired the Back At The Table (BATT) Framework™ and my book GULP. I show people how to reclaim meals, rebuild confidence at the table, and enjoy food at home, with friends, or while travelling - step by step, at your own pace.
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.
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 belief in the power of social eating into a structured framework and built a business that lets me hike internationally while working with purpose on a global scale.
For Adventurous Eaters:
Women navigating dysphagia who want to keep exploring, eating well, and living life on their own terms. Practical strategies, guides, and resources help make every meal an experience, whether at home or abroad.
For Clinicians:
Speech pathologists, dietitians, and healthcare teams who want deeper insight into lived experience. Our resources and training help professionals deliver care with confidence, empathy, and real-world applicability.
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.
Everything here is as an addition to medical advice. This is lived experience and what I know as a qualified chef and by trial and error with my own food life.
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 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 resources ( if selected) 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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
“Yvonne’s authentic voice connects with readers on a deep, emotional level. Her content educates, comforts, and inspires in equal measure. I cannot recommend Yvonne’s writing enough to anyone looking for an authentic, compassionate voice in this space.”
— Dr Jana Rieger PhD
