![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/73ee3b78e1351b5931905c1893b20a92.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nA pioneering scheme in Sheffield which has helped more people survive cancer could be rolled out nationwide.<\/p>\n
Active Together gives cancer patients personalised exercises, nutritional advice and psychological support to help them before and after major surgery and treatment.<\/p>\n
Yorkshire Cancer Research is now calling on the government to provide the scheme on the NHS as part of its White Rose campaign.<\/p>\n
Karen Nile, who was diagnosed with stage two bowel cancer, said: “The scheme was profoundly life changing and we are so lucky in South Yorkshire as this isn’t offered anywhere else. It prepared me for the biggest stage of my life and helped me recover from it.”<\/p>\n
Karen, 51, was diagnosed with cancer two years ago and underwent an eight-hour operation to remove the tumour before embarking on six months of preventative chemotherapy.<\/p>\n
Prior to the operation she was referred to Active Together where a team of experts helped her prepare.<\/p>\n
“It was just absolutely wonderful, the exercises suited my pace with my pain levels,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t work out in a gym. I love to be in woodland so I did my exercises outdoors, which was really good for my managing my anxiety prior to the surgery.<\/p>\n
“I wasn’t familiar with hospitals. I’d never had a general anaesthetic. So, all of those anxious moments were pacified by a team of experts who were completely dedicated to looking after me, preparing me for that major surgery and helping me recover.<\/p>\n
“Within two months of surgery, I was at a music festival. My journey didn’t finish there, it just helped me gain confidence enough to be able to go out and enjoy myself.”<\/p>\n
Karen returned to the scheme again during her chemotherapy.<\/p>\n
“I was given three exercise books and I remember thinking there was no way I was going to be able to get to the most advanced book, but I did because it went at my pace,” she said.<\/p>\n
“There were days when I was absolutely exhausted but the exercise and nutrition meant I could manage during the chemotherapy.<\/p>\n
“My health now is brilliant. I’m so lucky. I’m still having scans but I remember all the tools and advice and still use them.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Karen Nile with Dr Stuart Griffiths of Yorkshire Cancer Research [BBC]<\/p>\n
Yorkshire Cancer Research say people in the county are more likely to be diagnosed with, and die from, cancer than almost anywhere else in England.<\/p>\n
Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre, which runs the scheme, found an overall 10% improvement in survival rates across colorectal, lung, and upper gastrointestinal cancers.<\/p>\n
Dr Stuart Griffiths, director of research, policy and impact at the charity, said: “Patients told us overwhelmingly they didn’t want to go back to the hospital so we deliberately designed this to be outside of hospital settings, in community venues so people can access services very easily.<\/p>\n
“Our White Rose report very much makes the case for embedding pre-habilitation and rehabilitation for cancer patients into the NHS and people can show their support for this by signing up at our website to send a white rose to the Health Secretary.”<\/p>\n
Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds<\/a>, catch up with the latest episode of Look North<\/a><\/p>\n More on this storyRelated links<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pioneering scheme in Sheffield which has helped more people survive cancer could be rolled out nationwide. Active…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[452,1204,7205,105,4348,93342,93346,93345,93343,91174,93344,16,15,93341],"class_list":{"0":"post-239922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-bowel-cancer","9":"tag-cancer","10":"tag-chemotherapy","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-karen-nile","14":"tag-major-surgery","15":"tag-nutritional-advice","16":"tag-psychological-support","17":"tag-south-yorkshire","18":"tag-stuart-griffiths","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-yorkshire-cancer-research"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114800284383071858","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}