Just a warning, this is going to be a bit of a ramble :)
First, I'll briefly describe my journey of how I've gotten to where I am now! Like the majority of academics, when starting university I had absolutely not a scooby what I wanted to do or where my research interests lied. As a Scottish International Athlete at Junior Level, my longing to study at Loughborough University was fuelled by its reputation for sports. If you had known me in my first year of my undergraduate, you would've known that I was struggling with my degree and had more of a fixed interest in extracurricular activities and clubs, my athletics training, and of course attending the students union three nights a week. I'd came into my first year with the intent of only passing, and I did just that with 110/120 credits and scraping a 40% in some modules. I would like to sincerely apologise to Dr Ines Varela-Silva, my academic tutor, and Dr Katherine Brooke-Wavell, whose anatomy module I had marginally failed.
Anyway, by the time second year came around, my academic confidence had grown and I managed to redeem myself from the previous year. Now, here's where my academic interests sparked. When choosing modules for my final year, I chose 'Lifestyle and Disease' and 'Infectious Diseases in Humans'. Towards the end of my final year, COVD hit (ironic I know, learned all about infectious disease epidemics just to be living through one) and I found myself applying for a masters in panic - the panic masters. My masters was in 'Exercise as Medicine' and found there was only one module I was really passionate about - Exercise and Immunology. Had one lecture on exercise and cancer from Dr Mhairi Morris and I was hooked. Worked on my dissertation with her, which focused on exercise for metastatic breast cancer and won the project prize for achieving the highest dissertation mark that year. I didn't want to stop here and decided a PhD was for me - and here I am :)
So, that's kind of my story. How I came to realise Exercise Oncology was my calling in life. So let me now explain a bit more specifically what my research entails.
"Exercise oncology" is a developing field in the cancer care continuum. Everyone knows that exercise is a key component for a healthy lifestyle and overall wellbeing. However, while the benefits of exercise for the general population are widely acknowledged, there is still uncertainty whether these benefits also apply to cancer patients. The majority believe cancer patients should simply rest during treatment. Despite this, there is now overwhelming evidence that regular exercise improves a variety of cancer outcomes, including fatigue, quality of life, prognosis (i.e., survival) as well as many others. Therefore, exercise should be taken into account in the multidisciplinary treatment of cancer patients. I want my research to ultimately inform such decisions and lead the way of 'Exercise as Medicine' in cancer patients.
From studying cancer as part of both my undergraduate and masters degrees, I have generated a narrow focus on physical activity in the management and treatment of cancer. More specifically, I have a passion for researching under-studied cancer populations - i.e., metastatic breast cancer, and postmenopausal breast cancer (which I am looking at now as part of my PhD). Why breast cancer? To me it feels more personal, as the most common cancer in women.
So, there you have it.
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