Himalayan runs the cancer woman

« I got to my treatment as if I was preparing for the hardest climb of my life, » dr. Burke, an enthusiastic mountaineer, associate professor of exercise and health psychology.

This will be his first marathon, but the high -rise terrain will be familiar to him, as he has already climbed four of the seven highest peaks in the world: Argentine Akoncagua, Russian Elbrus, African Kilimanjaro and the Nepalese Everest.

-Before my diagnosis, I was preparing for Everest-Maraton and this climbing. Then, when the diagnosis turned my life in the face, I had to put aside many short -term plans. And the long -term people became completely uncertain, and I thought maybe I had no chance to return to Nepal. There were very dark moments when I didn’t know what I had to face, « Shaunna said.

Dr. Burke became the second Canadian woman in 2005 to climb Everest and since then the psychology of climbing and He explores the preparation for enormous challenges like Everest. But his field also includes the effect of exercise on cancer, and he used the theory in practice: he remained fit through the treatment of cancer, which helped to cope with the disease.

« Every time I was on treatment, I ran from my house to the chemotherapy bus and parked my car farther away from St. James’s hospital to run five kilometers until radiation treatment, » he explained. – The active lifestyle helped to endure treatment, I experienced few side effects, and it had a good effect on me. I know exactly how to prepare patients for treatment, be it surgery, chemotherapy or radiation.

His work at Leeds University, supported by many institutes, has shown that people should be as active as possible before and during treatment to promote healing.