‘If you enjoy it, it’s sustainable’: Program helps cancer survivors get fit, build community

ByJennifer Byrne

Fact checked byHeather Biele

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Key takeaways:

Believe in You helps cancer survivors prepare for the annual Dolphins Cancer Challenge, which includes a 5K and bike rides.
The program offers training to patients and survivors and encourages year-round fitness.

The Miami Dolphins’ annual Dolphins Cancer Challenge has been the biggest fundraising event in the NFL for the past 15 years, contributing $90 million toward research at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of Miami.

The event, which includes a 5K and bike rides ranging from 13 to 99 miles, gives the community the opportunity to participate in an athletic challenge while supporting a worthy cause.

However, when Paola Rossi, MD, MSED, discussed the challenge with patients at Sylvester a few years ago, she recognized a need to make the event more accessible to the people who inspired it.

“We were talking with some of the patients about this event, and they were saying things like, ‘I would love to participate, but I can’t even make it from the parking lot to the stadium, much less think about doing a 5K,’” Rossi, clinical program director of lifestyle medicine at Sylvester, told Healio. “We’re doing this event to fundraise for cancer research and to honor patients with cancer, but it almost felt like we were missing an opportunity to include patients. We had to change this.”

That conversation created a new challenge for Rossi and her colleagues — one they quickly met by developing Believe In You, a wellness program for patients with cancer and cancer survivors.

Introduced in 2022 by Tracy Crane, PhD, director of lifestyle medicine, as an 18-week training program with the goal of helping survivors prepare for the Dolphin Cancer Challenge, Believe in You has evolved into a larger initiative aimed at promoting healthy, attainable fitness goals year-round.

“There’s a misconception that being fit requires this great effort,” Rossi said. “I’m not going to lie: Coming in on a Saturday morning to train is an effort, but if you enjoy it, it’s sustainable.”

The power of community

From its humble beginnings with a just handful of participants, Believe in You now boasts training sites in Miami-Dade and Broward counties and is led by a team of five trainers and 10 program assistants. The program even has a designated “training season” and “off-season.”

During the training season, Believe in You offers complimentary Saturday outdoor workouts for survivors and their chosen companions, as well as a host of virtual weekday classes that include strength training, cardio, nutrition and yoga. Participants also receive resistance bands and weights to use at home.

The program is open to all patients with cancer and cancer survivors in South Florida — not just patients at Sylvester — as long as they have medical clearance.

“There are two key elements to Believe in You: One is our program itself, which was developed for cancer survivors, wherever they are in their journey. We tailor it to ensure that during their training with us, they get the help they need to at minimum successfully complete a 5K walk,” Rossi said. “The other is the community that we build. We’ve found this to be very meaningful to these participants.”

Rossi said she has witnessed the transformative power of community numerous times while overseeing Believe In You.

“We have so many stories about patients coming in and saying, ‘I don’t think I’ll be able to do it, but I’ll just try it and see how it feels,’ and then they form these connections and encourage and motivate each other,” she said. “We always knew community was important and that having a buddy system was valuable, but this has further proven this point.”

The program also provides a weekly newsletter dedicated to health and fitness education and combats misinformation about exercise and cancer through “myth-busting,” Rossi said.

“We also have a monthly workshop about nutrition, exercise and behavior change,” she said. “We had a workshop recently about self-talk and mental toughness, which addressed how to talk yourself through a 5K or a 30-mile bike ride, even when you’re tired or if you have to stop along the way.”

‘Much greater implications’

Believe in You provides ongoing support during the “off-season” — beyond the short-term goal of training for the Dolphins Cancer Challenge.

Although this aspect of the program is not as rigorous as the training phase, it offers resources to ensure that cancer survivors remain engaged in fitness, health and community, Rossi said.

“The training season is very hands-on, with sessions Monday to Friday and then the Saturday in-person training sessions,” she said. “The off-season includes monthly in-person training, so participants don’t completely miss the community. Right now, we’re also offering four classes via Zoom to keep participants active and hopefully get them to the recommended goal of 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week.”

Rossi emphasized that although physical fitness is the goal of Believe in You, the health benefits it provides have much greater implications for cancer survivors. In addition to the psychological benefits of community and teamwork, she noted that the exposure to health education and advice can have a significant impact on cancer outcomes.

“There’s a difference when you’re a survivor of cancer,” Rossi said. “Exercise is important for everyone but, in cancer survivorship, there’s strong evidence that it not only reduces the risk for cancer coming back but also reduces the chances of new cancers, improves quality of life and reduces long-term symptoms.”

There has been increased messaging in recent years on the benefits of exercise for cancer survivors. During active treatment and into survivorship, those living with cancer commonly experience fatigue and other symptoms which, at first glance, might seem prohibitive to exercise.

“Exercise improves mental health symptoms like anxiety and depression, but also fatigue, which might seem counterintuitive,” Rossi said. “It’s estimated that between 40% and 90% of cancer survivors have fatigue as a chronic symptom, but it’s been proven that exercise can improve fatigue.”

Additionally, Rossi encourages survivors to keep in mind that fulfilling weekly fitness recommendations does not require “extreme” effort, and can instead be a fun, social activity.

“You don’t have to train for a marathon or anything too intense to meet the 150-minute weekly recommendation,” she said. “You can come to a park once a week with friends, do some great exercise, visit with one another and then also do something during the week, and before you know it you are at the goal of 150 minutes. Every little bit adds up.”

Reference:

Believe In You: Cancer survivors train for the Dolphins Cancer Challenge. https://news.med.miami.edu/cancer-survivors-train-for-the-dolphins-cancer-challenge. Published Feb. 17, 2025. Accessed March 24, 2025.