Experts agree that exercise helps in the fight against the disease, including cancer. This scientific certainty led the Parish Council of Ajuda in Lisbon to organize physical education classes. They are free and are intended for elderly with cancer diseases.
They are over 65 years old and fight or fought against a cancer. This is what dozens of people who since last year have come together every Tuesday and Thursdays in the Multipurpose Pavilion of Aid to exercise physical.
It is from this synergy between mental and physical health that the project of the ‘step to hug’ was born. Through exercise wants to enhance the longevity of the elderly with cancer, the age range where the disease is more prevalent.
“From the scientific point of view it has proved that there is an increase in survival in patients and also has an increase in quality of life, namely with tolerance to treatments. But in this program, one of the advantages was to improve human relationships and improve the contact network among people. The most important factor in longevity for all of us is human relations, ”says Vasco Fonseca, oncologist.
The sessions last between 45 to 60 minutes. They are challenging, but adaptable to one’s limitations. Educated for physical exercise… The habit is incurred and the results are in sight.
“People manifest that they have changed their lives, they have changed the way they are, they walk much more, they live much more,” explains Cristina Vaz de Almeida from the Portuguese Society of Health Literacy.
The network project of the Portuguese Society of Health Literacy will be replicated at the national level at a time when the average life expectancy and cancer diagnoses increase from year to year. The project started in January last year and is integrated into the National Active and Healthy Aging Plan.
