The field of breast cancer rehabilitation has been around for many decades- but the focus has been primarily on lymphoedema (persistent swelling of the arm or breast). Rehabilitation focusing on movement recovery, pain management, nerve damage secondary to chemo  and return to "normal" function is a much more recent field of study.

 

I have always been interested in shoulder and arm function and so very early on in my lymphoedema practice, I wondered why many women suffered extremley bad shoulder pain and movement after breast surgery and radiotherapy. This lead me to study outside of lymphoedma care and investigate the available treatment techniques and options which could make a positive difference to the symptoms these women were experiencing.

My passion and motivation is to bring this treatment to more women. This requires us to understand the many barriers to rehabilitation for women after breast cancer and to steadily work towards reducing these and improving physical outcomes for women after breast cancer.