Ilkley crime author shares how exercise is helping her recover from cancer

A crime author, podcaster and psychologist from Ilkley has shared her experience of how Yorkshire Cancer Research’s Active Together service is helping her regain strength and confidence after bowel cancer surgery.

Leona Deakin, 53, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in June 2025 after noticing symptoms such as blood in her poo and tiredness, which she initially put down to other causes like haemorrhoids and menopause.

After successful keyhole surgery, she struggled to know how to safely build her strength and fitness and eat the best types of food.

That’s when she was referred to Active Together Airedale, a research-backed cancer exercise treatment service funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research and delivered in partnership with Airedale NHS Foundation Trust.

The service, launched in September 2025, provides fitness, nutrition, and wellbeing support for people diagnosed with cancer. 

Leona said: "To have guidance from Active Together was brilliant. They gave me practical, tangible advice like how to make myself physically feel safe while getting stronger and fitter. They also gave me simple information about what I should eat at a time when I was so anxious of doing something wrong.

“But as well as that, they gave me a bit of company on the journey, and I can’t tell you how much that means.

Designed by experts at Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre, Active Together is underpinned by well-established scientific evidence showing that exercise can increase survival, improve recovery and reduce the risk of cancer returning.

Since first launching in Sheffield in 2022, more than 3,000 people across Yorkshire have benefitted from personalised fitness, nutrition and wellbeing support. A recent evaluation of the service in Sheffield found people who took part in Active Together were more likely to survive at least one year after their diagnosis compared to people with cancer that did not participate in the service.  

Exercise for people with cancer is not widely available through the NHS, so Yorkshire Cancer Research is rolling out the Active Together service across the region to ensure more people can benefit from this essential treatment.

By embedding Active Together in local leisure centres and community venues, including Ilkley Lawn & Tennis Club, Active North Yorkshire Skipton and The Leisure Centre, Keighley, Active Together supports the NHS’s ambition to move care out of hospitals and into communities. 

Active Together Airedale is aiming to help 1,470 people over the next three years. In its first year, the service will help people diagnosed with bowel cancer, followed by breast cancer. In its second year, the service will expand to include lung and upper gastrointestinal cancers.

People must be referred by their oncologist, surgeon, consultant, cancer clinical nurse specialist or another hospital healthcare professional, with referrals from GPs expected to be introduced in future phases.

Leona now attends weekly fitness sessions at Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club with the goal of returning to running half marathons with her husband.