A guide for joyful, healthy living helps breast cancer survivors stay back in the swing.
For Immediate Release, October 1, 2016– When Back in the Swing began in 2000, no comprehensive, personalized, multi-disciplinary, medical services for breast cancer survivors existed. Instead, survivors were sent home without medical care for side-effects from treatments and surgeries, and without strategies to regain strength and prevent recurrence.
That all changed in January 2015 when the American College of Surgeons (ACS) began to roll out requirements that a Survivorship Care Plan and survivorship support be among the standards of care for hospital cancer programs to receive accreditation.
“After 15 years of community support, personalized, comprehensive, medical care became a right for every breast cancer survivor”, said Barbara Unell, Founder of Back in the Swing. “Together, with others across the country, we have checked a huge box in the continuum of cancer care, by making survivorship medical care a way of life after breast cancer.”
As Survivorship Care Plans are given to patients, Back in the Swing has continued to help breast cancer survivors actualize those Care Plans, to help protect and improve their health 365 days a year, through the new Back in the Swing “Live Your Plan” Project at the Breast Cancer Survivorship Center at the University of Kansas Cancer Center and their six community practices throughout the region.
At the time of the Survivorship Care Plan appointment, patients receive, along with their Survivorship Care Plan, The Back in the Swing Cookbook: Recipes for Eating and Living Well Every Day After Breast Cancer by Barbara Unell and Judith Fertig, from Andrews McMeel Publishing.
Thanks to funding through Back in the Swing, over a thousand breast cancer survivors have received this one-of-a-kind, award-winning resource to help them actualize their Survivorship Care Plans. The Care Plans were developed by the KU Breast Cancer Survivorship Center, the first of its kind in the nation, established with the help of Back in the Swing funding in 2006.
The Back in the Swing Cookbook was awarded best cookbook by The International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) in its “Health and Special Diet” Category and has been selected for use in the Lifestyle, Exercise and Nutrition (LEAN) Study, a Yale School of Public Health study, funded by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Yale Cancer Center.
“What a positive moment for breast cancer survivors when their providers present the gift of a Back in the Swing Cookbook to reinforce the message that they are receiving survivorship care with the tools they need to improve and protect their health every day,” Unell added.
For individuals, companies and retailers who wish to offer their support to sustain this program, or for more information on how to purchase the cookbook, please visit: BackintheSwing.org.
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For more information, please contact:
Bob Unell
913-481-6364
Bob@BackintheSwing.org
