Pioneering programme to help cancer patients prepare for and recover from treatment welcomes first patient in Barnsley
A pioneering exercise, nutrition and wellbeing cancer support service that has helped more than 1,000 people in Sheffield prepare for and recover from cancer treatment has expanded to Barnsley.
The service, known as Active Together, has been designed by experts at Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC) with funding from Yorkshire Cancer Research and has been helping people in Sheffield since 2022.
Active Together offers free, personalised fitness, nutrition, and wellbeing support to help people with cancer prepare for, respond to, and recover after treatment. It aims to save lives by increasing cancer treatment options, reducing side-effects, speeding up recovery and improving long-term health outcomes.
It is now being rolled out in Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster thanks to an additional £4million funding from the charity. Yorkshire Cancer Research plans to take the Active Together service to people across Yorkshire, creating the largest global study of this kind.
The service will initially be open to people in Barnsley diagnosed with lung, colorectal or upper gastrointestinal cancers. The service will then expand into further cancer sites in the future. In Barnsley, the Active Together team is a collaboration between Barnsley Hospital Therapy Services and Barnsley Premier Leisure in the community, specifically the Metrodome complex. Barnsley Premier Leisure will assist initially with patients' recovering from treatment. Referrals can be made to this service from health professionals at the start of the pathway.
Find out more about the service here.