Annual campaign – October 2024

The benefits of physical exercise are both concrete and numerous: decrease in the side effects of treatment; easier management of fatigue, stress, and anxiety; heightened energy level; easing of muscular tension; greater respiratory control (in conjunction with radiation therapy); and, improved joint mobility following surgery. Kinesiology sessions can effectively help people get back into shape, adopt healthier lifestyle habits, and prepare themselves to return to work.

Helping someone accurately identify their needs is greatly facilitated by carefully observing a person’s preoccupations and how they are coping with the ordeal. This calls for a helpful ear and empathy. Cancer not only wreaks havoc on the human body, but it also upends one’s daily life. A key aspect of regaining control over one’s life is to quickly introduce a simple and healthy daily routine. This routine often begins with breathing exercises and exercises to improve one’s posture.

The point is obviously not to ask someone with lung cancer to do push-ups, especially when they may be finding it difficult to simply get up from a sitting position. Once we understand what people with cancer must contend with, we can begin to adapt the type, frequency, and intensity of various physical activities to even the most precarious health condition.

I recently met with someone who seemed truly depressed, to the point where venturing outside was a challenge. Once I learned that he was passionate about photography, I asked him to go outdoors every day and take one single photograph on a specific theme; this also had the added benefit of inciting him to walk about. At the opposite end of the spectrum, another woman undergoing breast cancer treatments in the spring had set the goal of running a half-marathon in the fall. Thanks to the Foundation’s kinesiology program, she achieved her objective… the following year.