A TERMINALLY ill businessman has launched a podcast with guests including Hollywood star Wesley Snipes and actress Claire Holt.

Damien King Lee, the 54-year-old founder of Mr Lee’s Noodles, said he wanted to help other people going through life-changing experiences.

He has undergone 78 treatments and has been told that his body could not take any more chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

“I’ve seen first-hand the detrimental effect a diagnosis like mine can have on you, your friends and family,” he said.

“This podcast is for those people who’ve faced their own challenges and I hope that, by listening to my guests, they can relate, be inspired and feel comforted.

“I’ve been lucky enough to get some incredible guests on the show, and I’ve been even luckier that they’ve totally opened up to me, and shared experiences they haven’t shared before.

“I think knowing that your heroes have also had their share of ‘life’ to deal with makes them feel more human and also makes you feel like you aren’t alone with your own struggles.”

The opening two-part episode of Life Is... With Damien King Lee is available now and features WWE wrestlers the Bella Twins talking about growing up with a drug-addicted father, as well as how the how the Me Too movement spurred Nikki Bella to share her experience of sexual abuse. The twins, both 39 weeks pregnant at the time, discuss their wrestling careers, fighting for women’s rights and their experience of reality TV.

In episode three, to be released next week, Wesley Snipes discusses life in the Bronx, his poor upbringing and the fraud charges that saw him jailed in 2008.

In the following episodes, Claire Holt – known for TV appearances in The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars – discusses managing motherhood and career, her devastating miscarriage and post-natal depression.

Mr Lee, originally from Sydney, Australia, was diagnosed in 2014 with stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which started in his chest and spread to his stomach. He was told he had weeks to live and that chemotherapy would be pointless.

However, he underwent chemo and transformed his lifestyle – leading him to launch his healthy instant noodle brand in 2016.

“As a time-poor entrepreneur, I used to take a lot of shortcuts with my diet. When you’re running around, you tend to eat quick, easy, and often unhealthy meals, with my go-to often being instant noodles,” he said.

“Being half Singaporean, I’ve grown up eating a lot of noodles. They were convenient and tasted, well, OK enough to eat.”

He was in complete remission at the time Mr Lee’s Noodles was launched but was diagnosed with an unrelated cancer of the neck and throat in 2017. He had radiotherapy and neck surgery, but learned last year that the cancer had returned.

He says he has undergone 78 treatments, from chemotherapy to radiotherapy and multiple surgeries. A course of chemo in April was put on hold because of the Covid crisis.

“I was of course frustrated and upset, but I also understand the pressures the NHS are under due to the pandemic,” he said.

“I saw first-hand the shortages in the NHS and the nurses who were struggling to find something nourishing to eat during their long shifts. So we decided to donate thousands of noodles to hospitals all over the UK."

He was told in September that his most recent treatment had not worked and that he would not survive further chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

“I’m not going to stop trying to cure my cancer. I want to at least live with it long enough to see my boys graduate from university and get married,” he said.

“I recently took a test to see if I would be a candidate for an immunotherapy trial. The results came back negative. However I was accepted anyway as it really is my last shot.

“I’m starting this month and if all goes well, I will be part of this trial and treatment plan for two years.

“I truly believe my battle with cancer has been successful up to this point thanks to 20 per cent medicine, and 80 per cent to my state of mind.

“And that’s my main motivation behind the new podcast, by sharing my story, and the amazing stories from my guests, we hope that we can inspire others to believe in themselves, and use their inner power and strength of mind to keep on fighting.”