#TimPageFitForLife Interview II, Laura Croan - Physical Fitness for Patients
15 September 2016
The second #TimPageFitForLife interview is with Laura Croan, Clinical Nurse Specialist for Lymphoma, based in Belfast City Hospital.
Laura's post is funded by Friends of the Cancer Centre, doing great work - caring for patients, providing various resources for the Cancer Centre and also funding research.
I received help from 'Friends' in 2008 & 2013. Also, in 1985, during a month of radiotherapy at Belvoir Park Hospital, I recall the kindness of the "Friends of Montgomery House" volunteers. The charity changed its name in 2006 when services moved to the Cancer Centre at Belfast City Hospital.
Here's a Belfast Live article on the occasion of Laura's appointment.
Laura speaks about the benefits of physical fitness for patients. If the patient's condition permits, quality of life can be improved with potential benefits of increased muscle strength, energy, sleep & self-esteem - potentially resulting in less fatigue from both disease and treatment.
The academic papers that Laura mentions are listed here.
- Fatigue improved with exercise - "Effects of Supervised Multimodal Exercise Interventions on Cancer-Related Fatigue: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials"
- Benefits of exercise through treatment - "Precision Oncology Framework for Investigation of Exercise As Treatment for Cancer"
- 'Prehab' can help patient to tolerate treatment - "Cancer Prehabilitation An Opportunity to Decrease Treatment-Related Morbidity, Increase Cancer Treatment Options, and Improve Physical and Psychological Health Outcomes"
- Exercise after treatment can help with fatigue - "Randomized controlled trial of the effects of high intensity and low-to-moderate intensity exercise on physical fitness and fatigue in cancer survivors: results of the Resistance and Endurance exercise After ChemoTherapy (REACT) study"
Thanks to Laura for providing these references and also for being camerawoman during the interview with Dr. Drake. And thank you to David Speers, BT Apprentice, for being cameraman for this interview.
If you would like to donate to LLNI, the BTmydonate site is here
In case you missed it, the previous interview with Dr. Mary Drake, Consultant Haematologist is here
In the next interview, to be published on Friday, Michael McAuley, Owner of Exsto Fitness & Personal Trainer discusses the many benefits of fitness for life.
Next week, the remaining interviews will be posted:
- Andy MaGowan - Exsto Gym - Benefits of sports massage
- Prof Ken Mills - LLNI - the importance of research
- Dr. Kyle Matchett - LLNI - repurposing of drugs
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