Exercise MUST become a standard in breast cancer recovery.
Exercise must become a standard in breast cancer recovery. This year, with our 6th annual PinkDay fundraiser at Pear we are calling to MAKE 👏 IT 👏 HAPPEN 👏
Exercise physiology must be embedded as a standard part of breast cancer care, ensuring more women can access structured, evidence-based rehabilitation programs throughout their treatment and recovery.
We believe in the power of exercise medicine so strongly, we are putting our money where our mouth is, offering our PinkMoves program, free of charge - to all Oncology patients working with us at Pear.
Gorgeous Maureen, who you may recognise as a poster girl at Pear. Maureen’s warmth, and generousity volunteering as one of our cuddle mums for Mums & Bubs classes, was kind enough to speak to the media about her experience through her own diagnosis of breast cancer in 2017. - and what it meant to her to be involved with EP. Following surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, and later, a bilateral mastectomy, she says she found herself struggling to regain strength for basic tasks, and confidence.
“When I finished my first round of treatment, my breast care nurse suggested to me to start doing some exercise and suggested Pear, as she knew the exercise physiologists worked with cancer,” she said.
At the clinic Maureen saw myself and others on the exercise physiology team, for individual advice and later - joined our Pinkmoves Oncology Rehab class - specifically designed for women living with or recovering from cancer.
“It really helped to get me moving again,” Maureen said.
“I’ve kept it up for years now, and it’s been as good for my headspace as much as my body. My husband says I always come home happy from Pear. “Even after my mastectomy, exercise helped me feel like ‘myself’ again. At 74, I feel strong, pain-free and active. I don’t think I’d be the same if I had just stayed at home.”
So why exercise? What else does it bring to cancer recovery?
Maureen’s story reflects what research has been showing us for years: exercise is one of the most powerful — and under-utilised — rehabilitation tools we have in cancer care.
During treatment, exercise helps patients tolerate treatments better, reduces the severity of side effects such as fatigue, peripheral neuropathy and muscle loss, and can improve physical function and quality of life throughout the cancer journey. It also helps reduce complications associated with surgery, radiation and hormone therapies.
And after treatment? Research has shown exercise may reduce the risk of cancer recurrence for some cancer types. I’ll say that again: REDUCE THE RISK OF CANCER RECURRENCE. Why are we not making this accessible to every patient? 🤯
We routinely prescribe treatments with significant short and long-term side effects - for example medications like Zoladex that can induce medical menopause and bring substantial impacts for many women. Yet exercise rehabilitation, an intervention with wide-ranging benefits, still isn't routinely embedded into care pathways.
Our role is not just helping women survive treatment. It’s helping rebuild resilience, restore function, and support women to thrive long after treatment ends.
More than muscles: tackling brain fog and neuropathy
For Maureen, the benefits have extended beyond strength, endurance and flexibility.
“The exercise physiologists have even designed exercises for brain fog, which is a very real issue after chemo. We’d do movements that are broken into three or four parts, so it really gets the brain working” she said.
Maureen said the exercises also assisted her with neuropathy (numbness, tingles and muscle weakness), common symptoms caused by nerve damage during chemotherapy.
“I still have some mild neuropathy in my fingers and toes, but all the balance work and strength training really helped me manage those symptoms. I honestly believe I wouldn’t feel this good if I hadn’t kept moving.”
Despite this level of compelling evidence, access to Exercise Physiology during and after cancer treatment remains patchy. The Clinical Oncology Society of Australia recommends exercise physiology as part of standard cancer care, yet access often still depends on whether individual healthcare providers like our busy nurse practitioners know when and where to refer.
Exercise is not optional in cancer care anymore
We now have decades of strong, consistent evidence showing that exercise is one of the most effective supportive therapies in cancer care.
Exercise can:
improve treatment tolerance
reduce cancer-related fatigue
support physical function during and after treatment
reduce the severity of treatment side effects
improve quality of life
and in some cancer types, reduce risk of recurrence
This is not emerging evidence. This is established clinical knowledge.
International and national guidelines — including the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia — recommend that every person diagnosed with cancer should be referred to an accredited Exercise Physiologist as part of standard care.
And yet in practice, this is not what most patients experience.
Instead, access to exercise rehabilitation often depends on:
whether a clinician knows about Exercise Physiology
whether a referral pathway exists locally
whether a patient can self-navigate private care during an already overwhelming time
This creates a system where evidence-based care is available - but not reliably delivered. This year for Pink Day we hope to challenge and change this, so that we can share more stories like Maureens, and help support more women through Breast Cancer and beyond.