'Exercise for Life' DVD encourages patients to keep active

A DVD for cancer patients has been created by Sarah Tunnicliffe, senior physiotherapist at Addenbrooke's.

 

The 'Exercise for Life' DVD and booklet have been distributed to patients since April of this year, with the aim of teaching a simple exercise programme, and to give advice about staying active and improving fitness. You can watch the video below:

 

 

 

Inspiration came to Sarah when she realised that outpatients coming for radiotherapy and chemotherapy were not being given any advice about exercise. She came up with her initial idea for making the DVD in September last year, but soon faced her first challenge:

 

"I spoke to Charles Wilson, consultant oncologist, who was on board with the idea. He said that he was still telling patients to rest and take it easy during their treatment, but with the enormous amount of evidence now pointing towards the benefits of exercise, he realised that this advice was outdated.

 

"He confirmed that there were no provisions for making the DVD, so we decided to create a committee with Helen Balsdon and Nicola Hopkins. We discussed various options for the best way of making the idea a reality.

 

"I phoned hospitals with specialist cancer care, and found that most of them had no provisions for patients to be given advice on exercise when receiving treatment for cancer. I did however discover that a DVD was being used at The Christie NHS Foundations Trust. The physio involved generously gave us full and free access to all of the material, and we were able to take inspiration from it."

 

After deciding to produce an informative booklet and DVD for outpatients with any form of cancer, Sarah had to find a way to finance the project. Originally seeking funding from the Evelyn Trust, the committee then had a kind offer from ACT who said that they would make half of the funds available, with the other half needing to come from oncology.

 

"Fortunately we had great support from our patients who held fundraising events, and contributed the money raised to help the project.

 

"We also managed to get the booklet published for free as a friend did it for us."

 

A company called 'Film In Education' helped the team produce the DVD, filming patients from Addenbrooke's in their own environments doing the activities they were given. Sarah says: "They were great to work with, and so sympathetic – they really went the extra mile to produce a professional DVD."

 

With the help of Dr Archer, Sarah managed to get Lord Sebastian Coe involved, filming his scenes at Canary Wharf.

 

The DVD crew also persuaded Helen Worth from Coronation Street, and Nigel Reo Coker who plays for Bolton Wanderers, to endorse the need for exercise in their own messages for the film. Some scenes were filmed at Wallace Cancer Care, where a party was also held to celebrate the launch of the DVD, attended by patients.

 

The booklet and DVD form part of a patient pack that is handed out to patients in oncology at the beginning of their treatment.

 

Sarah says that she has had no official feedback yet, but knows that the 'Exercise for Life' concept has been favourably received.

 

"It was quite exciting coming up with the idea – it took a lot of determination to push it through and Charles Wilson was the guiding force.

 

"I enjoyed the whole process of having the initial idea, through to actually helping patients coming for cancer treatment. It proved that with some encouragement and determination, an idea can be put into action."

 

 

 

 

 

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