Cancer Prevention Exercise Programme Screening in Kilkenny UcanACT

The staff from Kilkenny Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Clinic have all completed their MOOC training course which qualifies them to participate in  delivering this Cancer Prevention Exercise Programme UcanACT. The 11th of March saw them participate in a further days training, and on the 12th the screening of participants took place in the Ormonde Hotel.

It is amazing to think that an EU funded research project involving University of Bolgna in Italy, University of Seville and Madrid in Spain, Trinity in Dublin and the university of Limerick will roll out in our little city of Kilkenny. It’s a privilege for our clinic to be taking the lead, along with the HSE in delivering this programme.

As this is our 30th year in business in Kilkenny, we are delighted to be including this project as part of our “30 events for 30 years” initiative which we kicked off in February.

So far all our staff have studied, through the online training course, the research which has been carried out by the faculties mentioned above and the methodology for organising and delivering the course. We have studied the effects of cancer on various cancers, and the contra-indications and risk factors involved in exercising for the over 50s age group.

The screening process which took place in the Ormonde Hotel in Kilkenny involved the potential participants filling in a self assessment under the supervision of the physiotherapy students from U.L. followed by an interview with our chartered physiotherapists to determine any risk factors and their fitness levels. A frailty and falls risk assessment was also completed. 

All in all it was a very sucessful morning, and we now have 30 participants ready to start exercising in Newpark March Park and James Green in Kilkenny.

The next stage for our team is to review the cancer prevention exercise sessions compiled by the sudents and then to turn up on Thursday and Friday morning and assist in delivering the programme and supervising the exercises.

Returning to, or starting exercise, for the over 50 age group can be a daunting task. There is fear of doing harm, of not being good enough and of just how to get started. The beauty of this programme is that the participants can be reassured that the exercises they are being instructed on are safe for them, that they will be demonstrated by chartered physiotherapists or physiotherapy students and that there will be lots of help and supervision available.

The physical activity programme will run twice weekly for 10 weeks. It is already fully prescribed but if you want to know more about the project you can contact the project coordinator Janette Boran, through Kilkenny County Council read more