Paul Hampson, 69, from Middlesbrough, was referred to the group in January after being diagnosed with bladder cancer.<\/p>\n
He said the sessions were “a little safe place for a couple of hours, twice a week”. <\/p>\n
Hampson said he also found it difficult to speak to others once getting the diagnosis, as he felt they did not understand what he was going through.<\/p>\n
“Some people are a little bit unsure of how to treat you, unsure of what to say, it makes them uncomfortable, because cancer, that word makes people feel uncomfortable,” he added.<\/p>\n
He has lost 2 st (12.7kg) and improved his fitness, since joining, which he said helps him through his treatment.<\/p>\n
The sessions have been held twice a week since January for cancer patients to build up their strength ready for treatment or surgery.<\/p>\n
The first half is focused on physical exercise, walking, lifting weights and cardio – then people are given a chance to to sit around a table and share their experiences.<\/p>\n
The project was initially funded by the foundation, working with University Hospitals Tees (UHT), which provides the patient referrals.<\/p>\n
The first nine months saw 55 people take up the sessions.<\/p>\n
In September, the programme was given funding by the English Football League, to become part of the Versus Cancer scheme, which is held at football clubs across the country.<\/p>\n
In partnership with the Northern Cancer Alliance, the programme now provides post-treatment rehabilitation and recovery sessions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Hampson, 69, from Middlesbrough, was referred to the group in January after being diagnosed with bladder cancer.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[6647,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-787270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}