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Sunday, December 7, 2008

Meant to be...

Last June while trying to juggle work, the the final prep days of Relay for Life, and prep for the Washington DC trip coming up in July, I came up with an idea. I decided I wanted to be able to help out more and have more flexibility in my life so I could have the time to spend with family and taken on my cancer awareness issues.

The master plan was to become a personal trainer who specializes in the area of cancer patients and survivors. Having a trainer right after my treatment was such a beneficial experience for me and I want to help others with it. In late August, I was finally able to get my study materials to become a certified personal fitness trainer through the National Sports Medicine Academy. I still have to test for the certification but I am close. My trainer at Gold's said he would hire me to work there and I toyed with the idea of trying to open my own small gym before the economy tanked.

In early October I found out that the local YMCA had just started up a cancer survivorship program in partnership with the Lance Armstrong Foundation. A few weeks ago they sent out emails with information about their classes starting after the first of the year. I emailed them that I was studying to be able to work with cancer survivors and would love to talk to them about the program and possible openings in the future. The program director emailed me back that she would love to meet with me and told me they were losing an instructor in their LIVESTRONG program and maybe it would be a good fit for me! Friday I met with Mary and Angie and she asked me to become an instructor/trainer for the program! Do you believe in destiny? If I didn't before, I certainly do now! Granted it is only a few hours a week but exactly what I want to do!

They are also having me go through a training next weekend from a national group that teaches about training cancer survivors and the impact from their treatments and surgeries. I have included the link so you can learn more about the programs offer and tell any survivors you know. There are only 8 YMCAs in the country that are running these programs and now I am honored to be one of the people bringing the program to the survivors in our community.

http://www.ymcatvidaho.org/index.cfm?ID=98,38,0

1 comment:

Unknown said...

AWESOME!!! That is such a neat idea - and it'll be so great! Congratulations on taking advantage of such a wonderful opportunity, and best wishes for continued success!!! :-) That is AWESOME!!! :-)