You never forget hearing the words 'you are right, you have cancer', but equally you never forget walking out of the hospital after months of treatment, with no more weekly appointments and feeling very alone.
Anyone who has gone through cancer treatment will understand where I am coming from.
There is the back up from the Macmillan nurses to call you, and amazing ongoing support at Maggie’s centre at the LGI, but for me it was one of the hardest parts of the cancer journey.
Amazing news that you are ‘in remission’, but suddenly all of that weekly support disappears.
Go back to the life you had before and get on with it. Just not possible, cancer never leaves you.
My counsellor said to me, ‘you can carry it as a boulder on your back, or as a pebble in your pocket, but it will always now be there’, she wasn’t wrong.
Hearing about the launch of Active Together at the Yorkshire Cancer Research Centre in Harrogate through Your Harrogate Radio was a lightbulb moment for me.
Having had three major cancer operations last year, following 18 months of long covid and then a cancer diagnosis had a massive impact on my physical and mental health. I was shattered, physically and emotionally and I needed support.
Cancer is a rollercoaster, there is no other way of approaching the subject. The Yorkshire Cancer Research team totally got that.
Upon registering with the Active Together programme, I had a full review of my history of cancer treatment, and an initial fitness assessment with a cancer exercise specialist to determine at what level to start my exercise treatment.
I was offered weekly 1:1 personal cancer exercise treatment and psychological support.
The scheme is so much more than just personal training and fitness, it encompasses your mental health and nutrition too, it is an all-round package of support.
Whilst I absolutely needed the exercise sessions, as after lymph node removal I lost a lot of the use of my right arm, I had no idea how much the wellbeing support would benefit me too.
We all bottle things up, but the freedom of talking to someone who doesn’t judge you, and listens is worth its weight in gold. Being able to talk to a nutritionist was also so helpful.
The benefits of the strength training? It was the difference it made to my everyday life.
Within four months, I went from struggling to lift a kettle to being able to use the lawnmower. I even bought the training equipment to use at home and now I am fitter than I was before I got my diagnosis.
The sessions are also fun too, because you are with people going through the same cancer journey and you are able to support each other.
Active Together offers free, personalised fitness, nutrition and wellbeing support for people following a cancer diagnosis, delivered by a team of qualified professionals.
The programme was born from evidence that regular activity before, during and after cancer treatment can save lives.
Research shows exercise after a cancer diagnosis can also reduce the risk of dying from cancer by as much as 44% compared to those who are less active. It can reduce the risk of cancer coming back by as much as 66%.
Over 1,000 people with cancer have already benefitted from the programme at Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre and the Yorkshire Cancer Research Centre in Harrogate.
The service has also recently been rolled out to Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster.
Over the next 10 years, Yorkshire Cancer Research plans to open more Active Together centres across the region.
Additionally, similar programmes will be funded at hospitals and in local communities.
Yorkshire Cancer Research’s long-term goal is for exercise-based treatment to become a standard part of care alongside hospital treatment so that one day, everyone with a cancer diagnosis in Yorkshire can benefit.
Active Together is not only helping people with cancer prepare and recover from treatment. It brings together communities of people impacted by cancer and gives them the opportunity to support each other. It is a vital way forward in helping to treat cancer.
I am living proof that it has changed my life and my fitness, and I cannot thank my personal trainers Amy and Andy enough.
Bek who supports my mental health and gives me more support than I could imagine, because it does help to talk. The centre itself also has an amazing café which is dog friendly, and a charity shop too, with amazing bargains, it is worth a visit.
The NHS does a great job, but post-surgery, there is no ongoing support.
Cancer does not end once you are told you are ‘in remission’, your body and mind need help.
The Active Together team at the Yorkshire Cancer Research Centre are doing this and supporting so many people.
I cannot put into words the difference that Active Together has made to both my life and others.
If you would like more information about Active Together, you can visit https://www.yorkshirecancerresearch.org.uk/active-together
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