Active Together

Wellness programme brings life-changing benefits to cancer patients

Promoting services to cancer patients to improve their health and fitness pre- and post-treatment is an integral part of the South Yorkshire & Bassetlaw Shows Up campaign.

Yorkshire Cancer Research has recently provided additional funding to expand its successful programme Active Together across Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley and Bassetlaw.

Developed by academics and clinicians at Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC), Active Together offers free personalised fitness, nutrition and wellbeing support to people following a cancer diagnosis.

Research has shown that regular activity, before, during and after cancer treatment can help cancer patients in many ways, and joint research continues to understand the life-changing benefits it will bring to people.

So far since its launch in 2022, Active Together has helped more than 1,000 people in Sheffield prepare for and recover from cancer treatment and has received a £4 million funding boost from Yorkshire Cancer Research to expand into 2026 and beyond.

Professor Robert Copeland, Director of the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University, said: “We know that prehabilitation and rehabilitation initiatives focused on physical activity, nutrition and psychological support can have significant benefits for people with a cancer diagnosis.

“It is fantastic that we are now able to expand the programme from its home at the AWRC to seven additional sites across South and West Yorkshire, ensuring thousands more patients are supported to independently manage their health and wellbeing throughout their treatment journey.”

The ultimate aim of the programme supports one of the main goals of the SYB cancer strategy to help improve patients’ long-term health outcomes and save more lives across the region.