Dr Stuart Farrimond: ‘Faced with the fragility of existence, I realised positivity is a choice’

Diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour, Dr Stuart was forced to give up his career in active medical practice. What he calls a blessing in disguise, he’s now an international bestselling author, television presenter and educator.

Images from Stuart's blog and social media

‘Dr Stuart Farrimond is in the waiting room,’ a Zoom message popped up on my screen. The reality of interviewing anyone in 2021.

“Do you mind if I make myself a cup of tea first?” asked Stuart, as he wandered around his kitchen in a comfy-looking cardigan. For him, it was a relaxed Saturday morning of countryside dog walking and typically British PG tips drinking, at his Wiltshire cottage. As someone who has recently undergone chemotherapy for his incurable brain tumour, comfort is key. Stuart perched on his staircase.

If you haven’t heard of him before, much like Joe Wicks is the nation’s PE teacher, Dr Stu is the nation’s science teacher.

He regularly presents BBC2’s Inside the Factory with Cherry Healey, as well as his guest appearances on countless other shows. His blog has over 1.5 million views.

You’d expect someone who’s made poached eggs in the ITV This Morning Kitchen to be enthused by their experiences, but Stuart is incredibly laid back. He doesn’t watch much television and had to Google who Holly Willoughby was before meeting her.

“I vaguely remember seeing Holly in the past." He laughed. "Actually I recently did a show called Steph’s Packed Lunch and again, I really enjoyed it, but I didn’t know who she was before filming.”

“I had to search for a few clips to know what to expect.”

Unbothered in the best possible way, Stuart puts his fresh and innovative presenting style down to his naivety. His accolades speak for themselves, and all it took to get the ball rolling was a tongue in cheek biscuit dunking experiment. Published to his blog, it was picked up by Nigel Slater’s documentary crew in 2009.

At the time, blogs weren’t that big of a deal, Stuart was having fun creating something that not many other people were.

Talking about his writing talents he said, “From that, I sort of fell into doing a lot of food science stuff.”

Stuart’s humble ambience is a testimony to his unconventional route to our television screens.

He studied Medicine at Nottingham University, by process of elimination. “I got good A-Levels but didn’t really have goals other than choosing something that used my brain.”

Which landed him in Bath, Somerset as a training GP, until he was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2008.

“The fatigue from surgery and the damage from the tumour meant I couldn’t continue with medicine.” He explained.

As a result, he started working part-time at Wiltshire College, where he was tasked with the almighty job of teaching science to school dropouts. “I took it upon myself to make this dry subject interesting, I actually found teaching a lot more fulfilling than being a doctor.” At the time, it was a welcomed distraction between rounds of chemotherapy. It was also what started his love of academic performance.

And just like that Stuart went from college science teacher to television presenter.

Although he is accomplished, Stuart is consistently faced with his mortality. Every three months, he travels to the hospital for brain scans. Doctors have warned that although cancer is not visible at the moment, it will return and eventually kill him, although no one knows when that will be.

Latest cancerresearchuk.org statistics

How do you stay so positive? I asked. He sighed, “You know Ulani, positivity is a choice.”

“When you’re faced with the fragility of existence, which is essentially that you’re a grain of sand in the infinity of time, you realise that all we have is this one life to live to the fullest.”

Stuart has fulfilled one of his wildest dreams, writing three international bestselling books: The Science of Spice, The Science of Cooking and most recently, The Science of Living.

As he was leaving our call, to join another about his fourth upcoming book, he hinted “you’ll have to look out for the name in the near future.”

After top-secret book talk, he was off to walk his dog, Winston.

I get the sense that Stuart will continue to educate and inspire, making science fun until he’s no longer able to.

Listen to the full interview with Stuart on my podcast series, Root.

You can buy Stuart's latest book here