You Can Get Stronger Thru Cancer Thanks to Priscilla Fitzpatrick

October is breast cancer awareness month and it’s a good time to sit with the fact that one in eight women will be diagnosed with this illness in their lifetime. So what can you do to combat those numbers? Schedule your mammogram every year. It’s not pleasant but it’s necessary to take charge of your health and give yourself the best weapon against a cancer diagnosis, which is early detection. Another weapon to help prevent a cancer diagnosis is movement. I learned from Dr. Kristin Krupa, a breast surgeon at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorn, that 150 minutes a week of exercise helps to decrease estrogen levels, which fights a common type of breast cancer in women who are nearing menopause or are post menopausal.

It’s no secret that regular exercise is good for everyone. And such is true with cancer, whether you are in treatment or recovering from surgery or living with metastatic cancer. Exercise mitigates short term side effects of cancer treatment such as nausea and fatigue, as well as long term side effects such as cardiovascular disease, deconditioning and nuerodegeneration. Exercise strengthens muscles and bones to prevent injury or breakdown that happens from the cancer and certain medications. Exercise helps to ease anxiety, stress and depression that may be associated with a cancer diagnosis. In addition, regular exercise causes the body to respond better to cancer treatment.

But, as you can imagine, figuring out where to exercise and what to do while being treated for cancer is just one of the many major challenges that cancer patients face. They don’t want to go to a regular gym only to be surrounded by people who are looking and feeling their best. And because their immune systems are compromised, there are health risks associated with going to a gym. Another huge concern is what type of exercise to do. Many patients are told that they cannot do any weight bearing exercises so in fear of injuring themselves, they find it easier to do nothing at all.

Enter Priscilla Fitzpatrick and Stronger Thru Cancer, the online exercise and wellness program created exclusively for cancer patients. I met Priscilla last year when she led a yoga in the park class that I attended. Priscilla lives in Bala Cynwyd with her two girls and was teaching yoga at the Yoga Garden in Narberth when I met her. I began to follow her and only then did I learn about her extraordinary organization that she started not even two years ago. She is very humble when she speaks of the enormous things she is doing for the cancer community.

I knew that Priscilla is a cancer survivor herself (she has been living with papillary thyroid cancer that is currently under control for 17 years).

This is Priscilla and her oldest daughter right around the time of her first cancer treatment surgery.

I recently sat down with Priscilla to learn about Stronger Thru Cancer and we talked about her life with cancer. Priscilla has always been a very active person. She did a lot of yoga and running before cancer. But while she was going through cancer treatment, she felt awful and didn’t have a place to exercise where she could be supported. When her treatment was over, Priscilla got certified to be a yoga instructor and thus began her fitness career, which subsequently included many exercise certifications. But perhaps the most pivitol for Priscilla was her cancer fitness certification. With this certification, Priscilla began running the LivStrong program at the Havertown YMCA where she was the group fitness leader. LivStrong is a free 12-week program for cancer patients that incorporates strength and stamina building, as well as flexibility, using the machines at the YMCA.

When Covid changed the course of Priscilla’s career at the YMCA and she lost her job, she started to organize some of her previous clients for specialized online group exercise classes. And as Covid changed where people were exercising, Priscilla saw how easy it was for cancer patients to workout from the comfort and safety of their own home while being carefully guided by her through the screen. And from that Stronger Thru Cancer was born.

Stronger Thru Cancer is an online wellness and exercise program for cancer patients. As genius as it sounds, Stronger Thru Cancer is the very first cancer fitness platform of its kind. Through Stronger Thru Cancer, Priscilla offers fitness classes to her 200+ members who are located all over the country. She teaches a live class every day during the week and has a library of about 300 pre-recorded classes available to her members. Classes such as Chair Yoga, Seated Strength and Gentle Yoga are great for those looking to move in a way that feels good and will benefit their bodies. Resistance class and Stronger Circuit are a bit more challenging, but Priscilla offers various modifications for every exercise. All classes are appropriate for all levels and all abilities, regardless of how weak or strong her members feel on any given day. There are classes to help strengthen balance, as well as classes to help ease the mind such as meditation, journaling and mindfulness. And Stronger Thru Cancer isn’t just an exercise platform. It truly is a community that offers support groups, cancer resources and a blog.

STC current members are ages 24 through 82 years old. They live in 17 different states. Some of them have been exercisers their whole life while others are just starting out. They are being treated for all different types of cancers. Stronger Thru Cancer tends to have more breast cancer patients because of the partnership with Unite For HER, a nonprofit that supports the cost of therapies and wellness services for women and men fighting breast and ovarian cancers. Priscilla recently joined forces with Unite For HER, which has roots right here in West Chester. Unite For HER gives stipends to cancer patients for integrative therapies such as reiki, meditation, yoga, counseling, nutrition and now fitness through Stronger Thru Cancer! By partnering with Unite For HER, breast and ovarian cancer patients can now opt to receive a 6-month free membership to Stronger Thru Cancer, which can be renewed at the end of that period. What an amazing local partnership by women for women!

Priscilla runs Stronger Thru Cancer every single day. She teaches all of the classes. Each member has a unique cancer experience and has different limitations, which could vary day to day. Priscilla’s specialized cancer fitness certification and her own personal experience with cancer perfectly equips her to assist STC members. And she is on a mission to make exercise a mandatory part of cancer treatment. She wants Stronger Thru Cancer to be shared with every single patient immediately following the life altering news of a cancer diagnosis.

While Priscilla offers recorded classes in order to accommodate work and treatment schedules, the personalized care that she gives during the live classes is what makes Stronger Thru Cancer so special. At the start of each class, the group briefly talks about how they feel that day. On the day that I joined a class, some members were starting a new treatment. Others had recently gotten the flu shot. Still others were experiencing the rainy, Monday morning blues, like I was that day. All of these factors will effect the ability for the STC members to move. This knowledge ahead of class is helpful to Priscilla so she can offer appropriate modifications during class. Regardless of how shitty they may have felt, each person that logged in for class that day showed up. And Priscilla sends cheers through the computer for that first step before class even starts. After the intimate talk, Priscilla hits record so each class can then be immediately uploaded into the class library.

Priscilla encourages cameras to stay on so she can watch and assist. After class, everyone reconvenes to reflect on the workout and how they felt doing it. Priscilla is so much more than an instructor simply exercising on a screen. This was made apparent to me during these post workout chats. She is a supportive shoulder, an encouraging soundboard and a empathetic friend. She knows the STC members and makes significant efforts to get to know the new members, no matter where in the country they are located.

I joined a few of Priscilla’s live classes recently (so I got to observe her unique rapport with her members). I took Resistance and Chair Yoga, which were 30 minutes each. In Resistance, we did five exercises, three times through, using just body weight for a full body workout. I brought the recommended chair to class so I could do the suggested modifications. For example, during the lunges, Priscilla recommended using a chair to help with balance. With the support of the chair, the exercise doesn’t change at all but it helps to steady someone who is experiencing neuropathy in their feet or lower extremities.

During Chair Yoga, we did breathe work, foot rolling using food cans and spent time in downward dog while seated in a chair. Priscilla offered modifications for this anti-anxiety pose so that members could do this pose while passing time in a doctor’s waiting room. I took away so much from Chair Yoga and can only imagine what the STC members can do with the information Priscilla provided during the thirty minute class.

I am holding a triangle pose while seated in a chair during Chair Yoga.

Stronger Thru Cancer provides a place for those with cancer where its unique members can feel supported, comfortable and active during a challenging time. With Stronger Thru Cancer, Priscilla Fitzpatrick has provided cancer patients with a place where they don’t have to feel so alone. A place where their teacher and fellow members understand what they are going through. A place to move forward. A place to get stronger through a cancer diagnosis.

Priscilla always signs off with a meaningful phrase like this one “Move today so you can move tomorrow.”

*Stronger Thru Cancer is a for profit organization where members pay $50 a month. You can reach out to Priscilla at strongerthrucancer@gmail.com to sponsor a member.