Robin Winkels on the joy of teaching cancer patients to row Artwork

Girl on the River

Patricia Carswell, aka Girl on the River, loves to row and loves to talk, so it makes sense that in her podcast she'll be chatting to guests from all around the rowing and sporting world about anything and everything to do with rowing. Always informal, occasionally silly, sometimes serious, often informative, she delves into questions such as how athletes become champions, how to promote diversity in sport, the secret to staying alive on an ocean, how to improve your erg score and what to do to keep your body and mind in one piece. Her guests include Olympians, health experts, Atlantic rowers, kit companies, indoor rowers, TV presenters - in short, anyone with something to say about rowing and its place in the world. The podcast isn't just about Girl on the River and her guests, though. Community is everything in rowing, so you, the listener, are an important part of the show. There'll be regular Q&As and listener debates, and if you have suggestions for fantastic guests, she's all ears. Patricia can be contacted at girlontheriverpodcast@gmail.com or on social media at @girlontheriver on all channels - come and have a chat .And until then... next stroke, easy oar.

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Girl on the River

Robin Winkels on the joy of teaching cancer patients to row

June 30, 2021

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