Getting fit & healthy after treatment

Daisy - one of CLIC Sargent's Young Web Champions - writes about getting and staying healthy after treatment.

I'm a very lazy person anyway so before chemo I wasn't very fit to start with, then obviously during chemo I did even less than I was doing anyway because I was so tired all the time. While I was on chemo I was taking steroids which made me feel huge, and being a teenage girl who is both bald and fat wasn't really that much fun so after I was given the all clear I tried really wanted to loose the weight! I didn't do that much work with my fitness to start with I just tried to build up my strength first.

Swimming was a great way to build up my strength for many reasons:

•        Swimming is a gentle way of building up stamina.
•        I could wear a swimming hat to cover up your baldness and get your friends to wear one too and still fit in.
•        I could swim up and down and talk to my friends to catch up at the same time.
•        Swimming was also one of the only sports I actually enjoyed.

It was only when one of my friends who was diagnosed the same time as me died, that determined me to get fit again. So now I have started running, I have started this running programme so I will soon be fit enough to run a race for life for my friend Ben. It started off running for one minute then walking for one minute and repeating eight times, three times a week and then finishing on running for half an hour continuously. I’m currently in the middle, running for eight minutes then walking for one, three times every other day before school.

Obviously running isn't for everyone, so I would recommend starting with a sport that you really enjoy. It’s really hard at first and I have restarted running after quitting ALOT but it’s a lot easier if you try to stick with it.

My mum was a health food freak so on treatment she supplied me with lots of fruit and lots of veg. I also ate a lot of junk food as I was constantly starving but my advise would be try to not eat that much junk food especially if your on steroids and not doing any exercise.