Living Strong Living Well (LSLW)
is a twelve-week small-group strength and fitness
training program designed for adult cancer survivors who have
recently become de-conditioned or chronically fatigued from
their treatment and/or disease. Our goal is to help patients
build muscle mass and muscle strength, increase flexibility
and endurance, improve functional ability and quality of life.
Research is now showing that physical activity may decrease recurrence and increase survivorship for cancer patients.
This program is available at no cost to participants and is not a source of revenue to Stanford or the YMCA.
Where We Are Now
The program was first implemented in the Page Mill YMCA in
January 2002. It has now expanded to eight YMCAs who are now running the program from San Jose to San Mateo. The success of the program has
prompted us to make more plans for additional expansion.
Why Living Strong Living Well is Important
This program fulfills the important need of the increasing
number of cancer survivors who find themselves in that transitional
period between completing their cancer treatment and the shift
to feeling physically and emotionally strong enough to attempt
to return to their normal life. The fact that the
program is outside a medical facility and integrated into
the community serves to emphasize that Living Strong Living
Well is about health, not about disease. The positive and
enthusiastic feedback that we receive from individuals who
have gone through the program convinces us that this is a
significant community program that fills an important, and
previously un-addressed, need of cancer patients and survivors.
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