Cancer survival is always a cause for celebration, but what's often overlooked is the physical toll treatment takes on patients — and that takes a lot of time and willpower to undo.
Fortunately, a couple of Good Sorts down south run The Wellness Gym in Dunedin, a space designed to give strength — both physically and mentally — to cancer survivors.
Lynnette Jones is one of the founders of the space, and said her gym is more a place of healing than a training ground for the next Olympics.
"People who walk through our door don't have to explain ourselves," she said. "Everybody knows."
Jones was a Good Sort back in 2017 when the gym's first iteration was started at the University of Otago for breast cancer patients, doubling as a classroom for PE students learning to help survivors get their strength back.
However, when she retired in 2021, the university closed the programme due to a lack of funding.
That's when Rieke Lamb — who had no connection to the gym — stepped in and told Jones that rejuvenating the gym for the wider community "had to be done".
They just needed money and a venue, and luckily the council had an old scout hall on hand.
Now, all of Jones' old clients have flocked back to keep their strength up and keep down the risks of recurrence.
"It's good to get people moving, we are built to move," she said.
"It never ceases to amaze me how strong these woman get."
Watch cancer survivors get their strength back in the video above.
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