13/10/2026
👋 I am Faye, a Macclesfield 5KYW ambassador and also a doctor 🩺 at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust
I joined the Oxford 5K Your Way, Move Against Cancer in 2019, mainly because of Brenda Kelly.
Brenda Kelly is an Obstetrician in Oxford, an avid outdoor swimmer and also someone who was recovering from breast cancer.
Her main frustration during her diagnosis and treatment was how little information she received from her clinicians about whether she could exercise, what form of exercise she was safe to do and whether she could open water swim.
She joined 5KYW to spread the word about the benefit of movement before, during and after a diagnosis of cancer.
I listened, and learnt, so I could better inform my patients.
Over the next 12 months I am going to be posting about the benefits of exercise in all types of cancer.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month 🎀
Exercise during and after breast cancer treatment is safe, and the research behind it is strong:
✅ Less fatigue, better quality of life: A Cochrane review found exercise during treatment improves fitness, fatigue and quality of life.
✅ Less joint pain: In a trial of women on aromatase inhibitors, regular exercise reduced joint pain.
✅ Linked to better outcomes: Studies of women who exercised after diagnosis found about 24% lower risk of recurrence and 34% lower risk of dying from breast cancer.
These long-term findings show a link rather than proof, but the pattern is consistent.
You don't need to run. Our 5K Your Way group walks, chats and sets its own pace every Saturday Macclesfield parkrun whatever stage of treatment you're at 💛
Join us this month at South Park, Macclesfield,
9am on the last Saturday of the month. We’re the friendly team in blue T shirts 👕 stood by the Macclesfield 5k Your Way, Move Against Cancer flag.
(Ibrahim and Al-Homaidh 2011 meta-analysis, Holmes JAMA 2005, Irwin JCO 2015, Furmaniak Cochrane 2016, ACSM 2019)
