February 4 is World Cancer Day, an initiative of Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), which encourages everyone to take some action on the issue or raise some awareness however big or small.
Many people think a diagnosis of cancer means they should do very little except get medical treatment. While health experts worldwide now encourage cancer patients to do as much exercise as they can manage, frontline medicos rarely give advice to patients about physical activity they should do. The result is that many people reduce activity after a diagnosis.
Another way to look at it is : there are about 25 million people living with cancer in the world and many of them are likely to die of something else – so it’s interesting to read articles in The Conversation about how important physical exercise is for people living with and recovering from cancer. At the end of that piece there are more links to further articles about exercising with cancer.
On another positive note, one third of cancers are preventable. That gives us every reason to champion healthy choices and prevention strategies for all, so that we have the best chance to prevent and reduce our cancer risks.
The 2020 World Cancer day theme ‘I am and I will‘ is confident and action-oriented; have a look at the UICC’s toolkit of ideas and resources to inspire your action, big or small, at https://bit.ly/2Rjkjco
Cancer Council Australia offers many tips on prevention here .
