Sitting at the helm of BBC's Newsnight, Victoria Derbyshire has been a pillar of British broadcasting since the 1990s; however, a cancer diagnosis in 2015 made her reconsider how her high-pressure job impacted her health.
The 57-year-old presenter revealed she had been diagnosed with lobular breast cancer in July 2015. She was 46 years old at the time and explained she sought a second opinion when she started noticing symptoms, including an inverted nipple.
Her road to recovery included a mastectomy, chemotherapy, and 30 sessions of radiotherapy, throughout which she decided to work as much as she could as a distraction from the cancer.
The journalist and mother-of-two received the all clear almost 10 months after her initial diagnosis, in 2016, and revealed she started working out in the gym to combat some of the pain she was feeling in her body.
"I have now found the secret to banishing the aches – exercise," she told The Times in 2019. Victoria continued: "Going to the gym regularly is a first for me. It’s a joy and a relief that the stretching and strengthening of muscles has dramatically reduced the pain."
© InstagramWhat has Victoria said about her exercise routine?
While the star is open and speaks candidly about her life off-air, she has shared only a few details about her specific routines, but regularly highlights how important movement and exercise have been in her recovery from cancer.
Waking up at 4 am when she hosted her self-titled BBC2 radio show, Victoria would save her gym workout until after she came off-air at 11 am and joined her personal trainer, Matt, for a session twice a week, in 2017.
She revealed she would eat a pot of turkey curry she had made beforehand, for fuel, before hitting the weights.
"I find exercise also strengthens my mind and helps me feel more in control," she previously told The Sun.
© Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty IWhat does a personal trainer think about Victoria's training regime?
Recovering from cancer is no easy feat, as the body deals with resetting after a bout of harsh treatments and surgery. HELLO! asked personal fitness trainer Melissa Lorch about the best kind of exercise to do post-cancer treatment.
"She is doing the right thing," the expert insisted. Melissa continued: "It sounds like she didn't go to the gym before her diagnosis, so her routine hasn't changed. Rather, she has started strength-based gym work post-treatment, which is great and very beneficial for her."
The trainer added: "Strength/resistance training is a very valuable tool to combat the persistent pain that can often follow breast cancer treatment. Studies published in the Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise journal and reported by the American College of Sports Medicine indicate that strength/resistance training is a safe and well-tolerated exercise modality for this population, with an ever-growing evidence base for its potential."
She commented specifically on why exercising for Victoria was so important during her treatment and afterwards. "There is little to lose and much to gain by exercising during and after breast cancer treatment.
"Weight-bearing and strength exercise during or after breast cancer treatment not only helps with bone and muscular strength (some treatments cause bone loss), it improves quality of life, physical functioning and reduces anxiety and depression.
"The guidelines for this population are much the same as for any other female of her age, requiring two to three strength sessions a week alongside cardio work. She would have just started like any beginner, with lighter resistance and gradually increased it over time."
