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You could be mid-way through the treatment process or a 5-year survivor. The YWCA’s Encore Program is free to any woman who has experienced breast cancer. It offers specially designed exercise, information your not likely to hear elsewhere and a support system like no other. Maria Hayes has the story.
Anne Marie Collingwood heard exercise and nutrition were key to surviving a recurrence of breast cancer. But she had no specifics: “If I as a personal trainer with the YWCA, if I’m not sure what I could do and what I should be doing and concerns for lymphedema, how would the general public as women.”
Her quest led her to an already established YWCA program in Halifax. Encore combines education, support and exercise: “The Oncologist they’re focusing which is great on what we need at the time with our diagnosis and our surgery and our treatment. And then it’s the afterwards. So that’s where a program like encore comes in. We educate.”
Now in it’s fifth year in Hamilton, Encore also teaches therapeutic exercises, on land and in the pool. It helps women regain flexability, strength and range of motion: “My arm can lift, but it can’t lift as high as my other arm. Now this is after 7-years. I’m doing well but there’s still a pull, numbness. You can get lymphedema so there’s other complications. Lymphedema, swelling of the arm so there’s limitations on what we can do.”
But breast cancer survivor Michelle McKenzie says the improvements are easily measured: “This is our 5th week. The range of motion in my arm has increased. I’m now moving a little bit better. Getting better.”
Each class includes guest speakers who address a wide range of post surgery topics from osteoporosis risk to intimate apparel options. In the early stages of her diagnosis, Cheryl Weldon already considers the program vital: “I’m just past the point of the treatments where I have a little bit of energy. It gives you a reason to get up and get dressed and come out.”
Though each session is just over two hours, the support network that develops often extends far beyond the 8-week program: “I think it’s friendship that’s the base of it and support is key, the component that just keeps it all together.”
Cancer survivor Elaine Lewis agrees: “You know you’re not alone. You’re not alone in your journey. You have so much comfort from knowing that. You really do.”
The YWCA Encore program in Hamilton operates 3 sessions a year. To register for the next class in January, contact the MacNab Street YWCA.
