National cancer director visits Yorkshire Cancer Research Centre

The benefit of exercise for people with cancer was the focus of a visit by NHS England National Cancer director, Dame Cally Palmer, to the Yorkshire Cancer Research Centre in Harrogate.

Dame Cally was joined by deputy director of delivery for cancer, Andrew Prudames, at the centre, to learn about Active Together, a pioneering exercise service for people with cancer.

The service is provided at the Yorkshire Cancer Research Centre in Hornbeam Park and offers free, personalised fitness, nutrition and wellbeing support to help people with cancer prepare for, respond to and recover after treatment.

Evidence shows the benefits that exercise before, during and after treatment can have on increasing cancer treatment options, while reducing side effects and speeding up recovery from other treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy.

The service builds on the success of the Active Together launch in Sheffield in February 2022, in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which has so far offered support to more than 1,000 people.

Over the next 10 years, Yorkshire Cancer Research plans to open three more Active Together centres across the region. Additionally, similar programmes will be funded at hospitals and in local communities.

During the visit, Dame Cally and Andrew met with Claire Strachan, who was diagnosed with Stage 2 Breast cancer in October 2023 and has benefitted from Active Together, taking part in individual fitness sessions after undergoing three major cancer operations last year.

Claire said: “Active Together has been a complete lifeline for me. My cancer operations left me feeling exhausted and I lost some use of my right arm following the removal of my lymph nodes. Having a personalised weekly exercise programme helped me build back strength and improve my fitness, enabling me to successfully complete a 29-mile walk over the month of May for the charity’s ‘We Walk for Yorkshire’ challenge this year.”

Yorkshire Cancer Research’s long-term goal is for exercise to become a standard part of care embedded in and delivered by the NHS across Yorkshire and beyond so that one day, everyone with a cancer diagnosis in Yorkshire can benefit from these services.

Dame Cally Palmer, said: “Our visit to the Yorkshire Cancer Research centre provided a great opportunity to discuss the important work the charity is doing to improve cancer care for people in Yorkshire and beyond. We look forward to hearing more about the development of its prehabilitation and rehabilitation programme.”

The visitors were also shown the charity’s smoking cessation service and examples of its work to promote screening, particularly the Leeds Lung Health Check trial. The trial, funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research and delivered in partnership with Leeds Teaching Hospitals and the University of Leeds began at the end of 2018 and saw more than 8,000 people screened, with almost 350 cancers detected. The majority of these cancers were found at an early stage when they can usually be treated successfully.

The NHS will take over the running of the Leeds Lung Health Check when the trial ends this summer to ensure that people in Yorkshire, where lung cancer is the biggest cause of cancer deaths, will continue to have access to life-saving screening. Data from the trial was also crucial in helping to inform the national lung screening programme, set to be rolled out across the country by 2030.

Dr Kathryn Scott, chief executive at Yorkshire Cancer Research, said: “We were delighted to welcome Dame Cally Palmer and Andrew Prudames to our centre to see how the charity is working to give Yorkshire more life to live.

“We will continue to share insight and evidence with the National Cancer Programme team on how cancer treatment and services across Yorkshire should be developed further to improve outcomes for Yorkshire, and beyond.”