You’re Not Alone

By Dr. Karen Wonders, Founder and Director, Maple Tree Cancer Alliance

Maple Tree Cancer Alliance in Dayton, OH is committed to improving the quality of lives of individuals battling cancer by focusing on their physical and spiritual health. Their evidence-based exercise oncology program helps patients to thrive during cancer recovery.

Maple Tree is a unique program that combines physical fitness and spiritual fitness, teaching patients that the best way to beat cancer is through a strong body and a nourished soul.

A STRONG DOSE OF WORKOUT

While exercising during cancer treatment may seem extreme for patients knocked flat by chemotherapy, radiation or surgery, research demonstrates the safety and efficacy of exercise, showing improved remission rates and better patient outcomes. However, nationally, only two percent of cancer patients participate in an exercise oncology program.

This is why the vision of Maple Tree Cancer Alliance is that exercise oncology would become part of the standard of care for individuals battling cancer. We are leading the way with our evidence-based programs. Presently, Maple Tree works with approximately 66% of the active patients in the seven hospitals we operate out of.

Exercise dramatically reduces the toxic effects of cancer treatment. For example, one dose-limiting side effect is cardiotoxicity, where the heart muscle doesn’t pump as efficiently as it should. However, exercise strengthens the heart, making it able to withstand larger treatment dosages and increasing the likelihood of remission.

Exercise also counteracts the weight gain sometimes associated with hormone-driven cancers, which can cause patients to gain upwards of 25 pounds during treatment. This weight gain puts the patient at an increased risk of comorbidities, including heart disease, diabetes and hypertension.

Exercising during cancer treatment is associated with financial benefit as well. Maple Tree’s research indicates that our program results in fewer emergency room visits, shorter length of hospital stay, and fewer thirty-day re-admittances for patients.

MORE THAN EXERCISE

The faith component of Maple Tree Cancer Alliance involves working with churches to equip them to tangibly support people as they walk through cancer. Christians, known as the Body of Christ, are called to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2). However, the unfortunate reality is that churches often fall short in this area. Less than 1% of Christian churches in the US have an outreach specific to the needs of cancer survivors.

Therefore, Maple Tree has developed an equipping program that gives churches a foundational understanding of cancer, as well as the side effects associated with the disease.

It also focuses on tangible ways people can love and serve those who are battling cancer, such as bring them a healthy meal, texting them encouraging prayers and Bible verses, and offering to run errands for them.

My dream is that Maple Tree would become a national organization, working in both hospitals and churches, alike, to meet the needs of individuals who battle cancer.

I wants patients to know that they are not alone. No matter what their prognosis, there is a hope they can cling to that stretches beyond the here and now. God loves them and is sufficient to meet all their needs through His Son, Jesus Christ!

THE RISK AND REWARD OF FOLLOWING YOUR CALLING

For me, starting Maple Tree was very risky. I had a Ph.D. in Physiology and did not see myself as a businessperson. I also had a lot of fear and self-doubt naturally, so taking the big step of faith to do something that at that time no one else in the country was doing was very scary! I would tell people my idea, and wait for them to laugh in my face.

I pushed through anyway, because I believed with my whole heart that God was calling me to this work and knew He would make a way.

Initially, to spread the word about Maple Tree, I spoke at local Rotary clubs. The very first rotary I ever spoke at, a retired oncologist at a local hospital was in the audience. At the end of my talk, he stood up and confidently told me that my idea would “never work”, and that it wasn’t a realistic idea. Seven years later the hospital where he worked is now our biggest client. We serve nearly four-hundred patients there every week.

Throughout the years that Maple Tree has been in existence, I have leaned heavily on the Bible verse that says, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ Phil 4:13. God has called me to be a wife, a mother of seven young children, a university professor, and to run Maple Tree. I can ONLY do that through HIS strength.

Francis Chan once said “I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit. I want people to look at my life and know I couldn’t be doing this by my own power. I want to live in such a way that I am desperate for Him to come through. That if He doesn’t come through, I am in big trouble.” — this is what I want to be said of my life, and this is why every day I get up and give my all to God!”

STAND ALONGSIDE OTHERS AND HELP THEM REACH FOR A BIGGER GOD

Up until recently, people thought that if you exercised during cancer, you would cause cancer cells to spread throughout the body – promoting cancer growth. However, we now know that exercise is safe and effecitve during cancer treatment. It reduces symptom severity, improves patient outcome, decreases fatigue, and enhances quality of life! Yet, sometimes, the biggest obstacle standing in someone’s way is self!

Eighty-five percent of the time, someone is sedentary before a cancer diagnosis. Even though more than 13,000 published, peer reviewed articles promote the use of exercise during cancer treatment, less than five percent of patients actually do it.

Sue (featured here and on the cover of Faith & Fitness Magazine) told us that she received a heavy chemotherapy regimen for her cancer, Hodgkins Lymphoma. By the end of it, she was so tired and depressed. Her oncologist told her about Maple Tree.

She had never thought about exercising before, and wasn’t so sure she could do it. She told her friends, and they immediately questioned how much it would cost her to participate. They were all surprised to learn that Maple Tree offers all of its services free of charge (thanks to the generosity of our donors). So, in addition to helping her feel better, exercising at Maple Tree was a safe choice for her financially.

Sue has been training with Maple tree for over two years, and says she has never felt better. She has never missed a single training session with us. She said there have been days where she didn’t feel like exercising, but came anyway. By the end of her session, she could feel her mood improving and the joy brought back into her life.

She has formed wonderful relationships with our trainers, who affectionately call her “Grandma”. What seemed like a risk at first has become a source of safety.

Sue is a huge advocate of our program. Just as much as we have been a blessing in her life, she has been a blessing to us – and a huge encouragement to our other patients! We love our Grandma.

Learn more about Maple Tree Cancer Alliance.