Vincent Guerrier was only 23 when he learned in 2016 that he had Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. The doctor warns the journalism student about the side effects of the treatments: “Radiotherapy, if it heals an area, can destroy healthy cells nearby, especially in the lungs.” And of to pursue : “You will have less breath. You can live normally, it’s just that you are not going to run a marathon ”.
Beyond the shock of the announcement of the disease, for this sports enthusiast cycling and running, it is a blow of the club. Helped by his partner Léa Dall’aglio, he resumed running, until running the marathon in Lille on May 10, 2017. A victory. This is what they say in their book Sick of sports. A cure for cancer (Editions du Faubourg, 186 pages, 18 euros), which has just been released. The title is borrowed from the association and the website they created, maladesdesport.fr. These two journalists, who are interested in how the media take hold of healthy sport, also produced a documentary, directed by Clémentine Brault, broadcast on France 3 Normandie and visible in replay.
“A first battle, a page turned. ” VS‘is with these words that the three patients affected by cancer testify in this documentary, at the arrival of the Courants de la liberté race which took place in Caen in June 2019. We witness the first strides of Fred, after two years off. We are amazed by the energy of Atena, affected by leukemia at 5 years old, who punctuates her chemotherapy sessions with personalized sessions of physical activity twice a week. According to oncologist Françoise Joly (from the François Baclesse cancer center in Caen), this allows her to have “A little bubble of oxygen, to get the child and his family out of the hospital’s daily routine”. As for Magali, who multiplies the chemotherapy sessions, she returned to sport after a first relapse. This 52-year-old woman will take up the Rochambelle challenge, this 5 km run-walk for the benefit of the fight against cancer. Either way, it’s good for morale.
Well-known virtues
“The image of the passive patient in the face of cancer is over, testifies in this film Antoine Desvergée, doctor in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the CHU of Caen. Physical activity makes it possible to limit the complications of prolonged rest, to fight against fatigue ”, the main side effect caused by cancer.
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