My name is Ted Poulter, just over 66 years old

and I live in Battersea in south west London and I am suffering from a rather

rare cancer of the large sheaf, which covers the internal organs of the abdomen.

I was diagnosed with the cancer in October 2009 and underwent surgery in November of the same year.

I think it’s very understandable that patients that have cancer

particularly as they are coming out of treatment may have some concerns about exercise,

particularly about overdoing it, but I do think that the regular exercise is an essential part of the recovery

and using a little and often,

building up the exercise bit by bit is the way to go.

Before I had the cancer I was physically active,

not from a sporting point of view, but much more through activities of daily living.

For example I would cycle at least at least an hour maybe even as much as an hour and a half a day.

I had been advised before going into surgery to get myself as fit as possible,

because obviously the fitter you are the better you are going to be able to tolerate the surgery.

In the run up to the surgery I found taking exercise very, very beneficial,

not only in a physiological way, you know in terms of the physical effects of the exercise,

but it gave me a feeling that I was doing something for myself,

perhaps taking control

under circumstances where one feels

one’s losing control because one has been given this rather frightening diagnosis.

When I started getting out and about again it was

a little bit daunting. What used to trouble me particularly

was crowds. I was fairly frail, my balance wasn’t

absolutely perfect and the idea of walking through large crowds

did make me quite nervous.

From being frail I used two forms of exercise - one of which was cardiovascular exercise,

simple exercise walking and the other thing, because I had suffered a lot of muscle wasting, was strength training.

That really helped me build up the confidence,

got me out and about much more, enabled me to get back to work, establish a more normal lifestyle

and now actually confident enough to fulfil one of my aims in life as I have bought myself a sailing boat.

This evening I will be taking part in an event in Regents Park called The 5k Your Way.

This is a 5 kilometre race, but I don’t think people should be intimidated by that as I am going to walk it,

but walking brisk walking of 5 kilometres has got enormous health benefits

and I think also being with other people, taking place in an event like this, it really is sort of up lifting, builds the confidence and

I better get going.

For information, help or if you just want a chat,

call the Macmillan Support Line on 0808 808 00 00

or visit Macmillan.org.uk