After open-heart surgery, severe anxiety, two strokes, cancer and countless setbacks, Brandon Fairweather is using his story to help others feel less alone.
Johannesburg, South Africa (05 August 2026) – There’s a remarkable difference between surviving something and finding the courage to talk about it. This week’s episode of “Good Things with Brent Lindeque” introduces you to someone who has turned years of unimaginable health challenges into a conversation that could help countless others feel understood.
This week, I chat with Brandon Fairweather about the experiences that shaped his life, the lessons he learned while navigating anxiety and why he decided to turn some of his most difficult moments into “The Hell Inside Our Heads“, a book that encourages people to talk more openly about mental health. It’s a candid conversation about hope and discovering purpose in places you never expected to find it.
“My journey started when I had heart surgery in 2011 and the short version of that was that through that and other complications in the years that followed, following a successful heart surgery, a really a good one, is that I just developed quite a lot of anxiety… It became this discovery of what anxiety was, and just this unnecessary fight-or-flight that would arrive at inopportune times. It just got to a point where this became so debilitating. I just resolved that this had to mean something,” Brandon shares.
Born with a congenital aortic valve defect, Brandon always knew open-heart surgery would one day be part of his story but he never imagined it would happen at just 28 years old. Although the surgery was successful, the years that followed brought a series of extraordinary health challenges, including two strokes, a near-fatal bleed and, later, a cancer diagnosis that he has since overcome. Along the way, he began documenting his thoughts as a form of therapy, eventually realising those pages could become a source of hope and practical support for others facing similar battles.
One of the strongest themes throughout the poddie (and the book) is empathy. Brandon believes we rarely know what someone else is carrying and that understanding has the power to change the way we treat one another.
“I think it’s just about this concept of empathy,” he explains.
“The book talks about what people are going through, the mental battles you don’t see. That’s why the title is so apt. It’s the hell that people don’t see. It’s inside our head. It’s not like a cut or visible wound or something that you can always see.”
The book isn’t written from the perspective of someone studying anxiety, it’s written by someone who has lived through it. Alongside deeply personal reflections, Brandon shares practical tools, coping strategies and the hope he found that helped him navigate some of life’s most difficult chapters. Even more inspiring, the project is entirely non-profit, with all proceeds going towards purchasing copies for donation and supporting nominated charities.
But for Brandon, success isn’t measured by the number of books sold. It’s measured by the conversations that begin because someone finally feels able to speak.
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If this episode inspires just one more conversation… it will have achieved exactly what Brandon hoped it would.
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