Robin Winkels on the joy of teaching cancer patients to row

Girl on the River

As soon as I heard about Row to Recovery I knew I wanted to talk to Robin Winkels, who founded it. Robin is a rower who, as a result of one phone call in 2014, ended up founding a charity that provides rowing for people who are undergoing or have had treatment for cancer. It's a subject close to Robin's heart after several members of her family had cancer, and she loves seeing the positive impact that rowing has on the participants. Here's what we talked about:

• How Robin got started with rowing and her love for the quad
• The River Corrib in Galway and the wildlife on it
• Robin's own experience of cancer in her family
• How Robin came to start Row to Recovery
• The practicalities of working with women who have had breast surgery
• The importance of being participant-led
• How rowing together diminishes the feeling of powerlessness in the face of cancer
• Being inspired by the participants and what Robin has learned from them
• How rowing makes the participants feel
• Robin's plans to encourage male cancer patients to join Row to Recovery
• Physical and mental benefits of exercising during and after cancer treatment
• How they kept each other going through lockdown
• Fundraising, recent developments and plans for the future
• The benefits of the project to Robin personally
• How to get involved, find the project or donate!

Resources
Find out more about Row to Recovery here.
Click here for their Facebook page. Go to @rowtorecoverygalway to find them on Instagram.
Check out these links to find out more about the benefits of exercise following a diagnosis of cancer, at all stages of treatment and afterwards:
Exercise guidelines for cancer survivors: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31626055/
Impact of exercise on mortality, recurrence and side effects of treatment: https://academic.oup.com/epirev/article/39/1/71/3760392#114725911
Guardian article about the benefits of exercise for cancer patients: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/07/cancer-if-exercise-was-a-pill-it-would-be-prescribed-to-every-patient