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Health & Fitness

Strength for Life, Nonprofit Promoting the Benefits of Exercise to Cancer Patients

Strength for Life is a local nonprofit organization providing exercise classes and wellness retreats for cancer patients and survivors.

Since this is my first blog in this forum - I will begin with an introduction of our nonprofit organization. Strength for Life provides exercise classes and wellness retreats for cancer patients/survivors on Long Island.

We began our journey after our friend and mentor died of breast cancer at 40 years old.  Evelyn Knapp, an exercise physiologist, knew the benefits of exercise in our life and learned how beneficial it was through her treatment. Exercise reduces many of the awful side effects of treatment - particularly treatment related fatigue and nausea - two of the most common and debilitating side effects of chemotherapy.

Although one would not think of exercising when feeling so tired and drained - it actually has positive results. In 2010 the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) released their newest guidelines - "avoid inactivity."  It once was said "bed-rest is best" that is no longer the recommendation. Get out and get moving.

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Strength for Life holds classes at the Stony Brook Cancer Center and at Body in Balance Physical Therapy in Hauppauge. In addition, we are being considered at Mather and at STARS Rehabilitation in East Meadow. Our goal is to make is as easy as possible for survivors to take advantage of our services. After Evelyn lost her battle with breast cancer, we went on to become certified cancer exercise specialists so we can safely and effectively educate cancer patients how to strengthen their bodies and regain their 'strength for life'.

After our initial presentation at the Mather Hospital breast cancer support group we learned how astronomical the cost of a cancer diagnosis can be. We knew we had to find a way to offer our expertise at no cost to survivors. We decided to go the non-profit route, naively believing we would be eligible for grants and donations to support this needed cause. We have learned to fund-raise to make it possible to continue our mission. In 2009 we decided to add wellness retreats to our programs - offering cancer patients a variety of modalities to incorporate into their lives.

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We focus on our strength training, we also offer yoga, tai chi, meditation, reiki classes and have guest speakers at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Each retreat evolves based on the participant's special needs and the incredible volunteers that come to share their talents. We have had presentations on the law of attraction, feng shui, acupuncture, chiropractic, naturopathic medicine as well as traditional therapies.

There have been 'aha' moments, camaraderie, laughter and tears embraced in the retreat. We are all gifted here - Strength for Life receives as well as shares. The goal for 2011 is to focus on prevention and corporate seminars, as well as produce a video based on our strength training class. Somehow, the participants just can't remember 'how-to' duplicate the exercises at home.

Our hope is also to distribute the video to the medical professionals so they may embrace exercise as a complementary therapy for their patients. Having your doctor prescribe exercise validates that it can and will help you feel better. Exercise is important to all of us - it is not always fun but it must be done. It is like brushing your teeth - you make it a habit and 'do it'. For more information about our programs please visit our website www.strengthforlifeny.org We have a skydiving FUNdraiser coming up in September - so if a jump is on your bucket list - do it for a good cause. And there is plenty of time to train for our 2nd annual Evelyn Knapp 'Run to Remember' in November at Sunken Meadow State Park. 

"Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals, and charge after them in an unstoppable manner." ~Les Brown

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