‘It’s like a 30 or 40 per cent chance:’ exercise helping Nanaimo woman tip cancer recovery odds in her favour

Few answers came as specialists took time away for the holidays and snow gripped the central Island making travel anywhere difficult.

But what Allen could control was her own mindset and she used the seemingly endless time until treatment in Victoria began to better educate herself about the situation.

Exercise was the common constant in everything the family lawyer read.

“(I) came across a book that had really talked about the scientific evidence behind working out, how it could make treatment work better and how you could feel better and minimize side effects.”

The mother of a four year old boy began a new routine of weightlifting, running and other physical activity between the December diagnosis and treatment beginning in late February.

She said it got her to a point so when her 25-day course of radiation began, in conjunction with chemotherapy and an internal blast of radiation, her body could handle it.

“Once I started treatment, I was really lucky I think in that it was really not that bad. Some of the chemo drugs had some side effects so I was quite dizzy so I couldn’t do things like cycling and running I didn’t have the energy for.”

She said she replaced some of her more high intensity workouts with walks around Victoria, where her and her husband Ian based during the week at a friend’s place.

A set back towards the end of treatment saw her hospitalized for several days after losing a lot of blood.

“I went from being able to walk seven or eight kilometres a day without much issue to not being able to walk down a block.”

Allen wrapped treatment over Easter and now plays another waiting game to get her results.

It won’t be until July when she has the next direction for her doctors as they give the radiation time to work in her body. Early indications however are positive, with preliminary scans and MRI’s all yielding positive news.

The pause, and hopeful end, of treatment is giving Allen a chance to get back more of her energy and active lifestyle she enjoyed before.

“Compared to other stories I’ve heard, i seem to have it very easy but it took about two weeks to really start to feel energy coming back and I’ve just started doing more spin workouts, high intensity things. I’m definitely not where I was before, that I think will probably take a few months.”

Allen is adamant exercise and a healthy lifestyle put her in good stead to tackle a stage three diagnosis head on.

“Having a busy job, having a busy toddler, days would go by when I’d walk the dog but wouldn’t do a planned workout and realizing now…that physical exercise has such an impact on your mental and physical health, it’s crazy.”

She said a workout at the end of the day is something she read and found extremely helpful, using it to decompress from the stress of treatment and her job.

Allen is on leave from her law practice in Nanaimo but plans to return in September pending a clean bill of health.

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by Alex Rawnsley

‘It’s like a 30 or 40 per cent chance:’ exercise helping Nanaimo woman tip cancer recovery odds in her favour

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