On May 27, 2012, I will be running the Keybank Vermont City marathon with over 100 teammates for the University of Vermont, College of Medicine Marathon Team and will be joining with the Fletcher Allen and Vermont Cancer Center Marathon Teams to raise funds and awareness for the Vermont Cancer Center’s Steps to Wellness program which provides exercise rehabilitation for cancer survivors. A classmate of ours, who is also a fellow runner, Colleen Kerrigan, is a cancer survivor and was instrumental in helping us understand how important exercise is following cancer treatment. “At this time one year ago I was about one month away from completing a grueling, 18 week course of chemotherapy for stage IIIC ovarian cancer. Now I’m training to run half of a marathon. Exercising after my body had been wracked by cancer, surgery and chemotherapy was so important to my healing process, physically and spiritually. Not only did exercise help me regain lost musculature and shed steroid induced pounds, it helped me regain the sense that my body was mine....The Steps to Wellness program is providing what I believe to be an absolutely essential service to people who’ve been through chemo. Physical exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and it undoubtedly restores a sense of wellbeing in cancer survivors. “