No one can describe the benefits of our programs better than the people who participate in them
We value your words about us. Please feel free to add your own comments below.
Why are these women smiling?
Please click here to read about their breakthrough climb up the steps to Coit Tower in San Francisco. To our devoted participants, we salute you!
Undisclosed (breast cancer)
I'd always been really active but when I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 35, everything turned upside down. The Sunflower Wellness program allowed me to commit all the more to my exercise program. I would often go to yoga classes after getting chemotherapy infusions. Not only did yoga make my side effects feel like no more than a nuisance, but empowered me to embrace the warrior in me, in all aspects. Thank you Regan, for giving me this beautiful silver lining on my cancer journey.
Janet (breast cancer)
I was diagnosed with breast cancer 2-1/2 years ago and have gone through 3 surgeries, chemo, radiation and a few other treatments. I have tried to exercise through all of it and have found that no matter how much I could or couldn’t do, I always felt better. I try to take my walks on the beach or go to an exercise class every day. I know that exercise is key to my recovery, to regaining my strength, to my emotional well-being and to doing all that I can to stay cancer-free and avoid a recurrence. I want to live a long and healthy life for both myself and for my kids. I really believe that exercise is what will help me achieve all of this.
Chava
Exercise has helped me enormously since cancer treatment; in particular, it has all but eliminated the "chemo-brain" that was so distressing to me. The classes I attend have me feeling healthier than I have in decades. Because I have a kind of cancer the oncologists tell me will return, it is important to me to stay as fit as I can. Even if I can't prevent a recurrence, I will need to be strong to go through future treatments.
Kendelyn
Keeping in good physical condition has been very helpful in the six years since I was diagnosed. When I participate with others (group sessions, etc), I do much better than trying to keep up an exercise program solo. I was in a pilot exercise class in April 2004 and was very encouraged by my ability to stay as fit as possible in between my two rounds of chemo. Although I am still receiving chemo every three weeks, I feel that it is very beneficial that I stay physically active and as in-shape as possible.
Carrie (breast cancer)
I got a biopsy and it came back, and it was cancer. I mean, it got to the point where I could barely get out of bed but if I went to the gym, I could feel 80% better. And then for the rest of the week I was driving, I was doing yoga classes.
Lynn (breast cancer)
I leave (exercise) feeling euphoric, actually. I just had a really positive attitude, and a lot of people didn’t even know I had breast cancer. When you describe your tiredness from radiation with another IMPACT member, they really get it. I would have had a lot bigger challenge to keep my morale up. I tell you, I’m an exercise proponent now. I’m going to exercise for the rest of my life.
Tom
When you’re working out, you actually feel like you have some kind of control. [Finding out I had cancer] was scary. It gave me a”gut check.” No matter what you can do, even if it’s just stretching, even if it’s just getting here, you have to do it. I got stronger every week. I got noticeably stronger. And just feeling yourself getting stronger, even while you’re going through chemotherapy—how can you do anything else but that? I think it kept me from going insane, because when you think about what’s going on in your body, and what you don’t know, and what they tell you—the doctors and the statistics and the failures and the successes, it really helped me focus on getting better without thinking about all the bad stuff. I focused on the positive.
Laura
IMPACT is a good word because it’s impacted my life… a lot. I remember lying in the hospital thinking I just wish there something that, a program, or exercise that I could join a group, that would understand chemo. I realize that that was the only hour that I was not in pain. Feeling good physically, of course, made me feel much stronger emotionally. I would love to see this program expanded to include all the people that come online with cancer or any debilitating disease because I think it’s very important. Jane and Regan are just saints for doing this.