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The Royal Hotel’s Yellowhead B conference room was bursting with laughter and fun at the first Lloydminster Living Well with Cancer Retreat on Saturday, April 25, hosted by the Canadian Cancer Society of Saskatchewan, and everyone in attendance learned practical and emotional tools that will hopefully assist them on their cancer journey.
“One of the highlights of today was people connecting with each other,” Deb Polischuk, Cancer Support Services, Canadian Cancer Society of Saskatchewan.
The retreat featured two speakers who dedicate their time to help people live life to their fullest potential. Darren Lang, a motivational speaker on stress management, helps people learn how to understand how stress works and how we deplete from it. His session focused on remembering the happier times through memories and compliments. He asked everyone in the room to write down and share, which left the room in hysterical laughter.
“It was mostly beneficial in terms of networking, I find. I have gone to a number of these conferences because I am so anxious to always improve my grey matter and then I do a lot of counselling. I like to be not only informed but have enough good information so I can pass it along. Having a speaker like Darren is a real bonus as well for people to have a basis to their knowledge. I encourage everybody to possibly attend these things, particularly early on,” said Margaret-Rose Uvery, a retired air force member now researcher, councillor, personal “care” servicer and musician.
The second speaker of the day was Tiffany Robertson, a certified exercise therapist from Lloydminster who works with a Border City based program called STRIDES to Better Health program which is funded by Prairie North Health Region.
“I thought it went awesome. It was a really great group of people and I was just trying to show them that it is really easy to get exercise into your life by coming to structured program or by home exercise programs,” said Robertson.
STRIDES is a free regional exercise and health education program that provides people with the tools they need to manage their own chronic conditions including, but not limited to, diabetes, arthritis, stroke and cancer. It also offers peer support, guidance and Robertson works on building each patient a personal exercise program built around their situation. Each program can be smoothly introduced into your life at home or at the STRIDES facility in the Prairie North Plaza.
“I think we had a wonderful day. We shared a lot of stories, had a lot of laughs and had fun together. I look forward to coming back to Lloyd and seeing all of these people again,” said Polischuk.
The retreat is offered at no cost to everyone in the community and Polischuk is hoping to host another retreat later this Fall with an alternative focus.