Thanks to Calgary research, a yoga program to help cancer survivors will now be used across Canada. The Yoga Thrive program is a seven-week therapeutic program that was developed at the University of Calgary and tested at the Foothills Hospital. The program aims to help fill the once a person has finished treatment but is still recovering.

"Yoga really helped me calm my mind, even though I'm not very good at it, as well as my flexibility and well being. It was just a total package for me," says Gale McCombie who is a breast cancer survivor. Research into breast and bowel cancer shows moderate daily exercise can play a significant role in preventing the disease. The Yoga Thrive program "is evidence based, it's researched to show that this sequence of yoga moves over the seven weeks does actually benefit the participants both at the physical level but also psychologically," says Lynette Stephenson who is one of the program coordinators.

Nearly 50 new instructors were trained this summer and more will be trained this fall in hopes of reaching as many cancer survivors across the country as possible.