Physical activity can help young people who have had a sarcoma maintain and protect their mental and physical health. 

However, we know that many of these young people struggle with keeping active, whether that is by limiting the time they spend sitting, taking part in different activities and sports or undertaking exercise. There is also a lack of support to help young people who have had a sarcoma to be be physically active.

We recently completed a study where we spoke to young people who had been treated for a wide range of cancers to explore their views and experiences of physical activity and what they would like in a programme to help support and improve their physical activity. From this we have designed a “prototype” programme (called BEACON) to support PA in childhood cancer survivors. 

To ensure the programme meets the needs/preferences of sarcoma survivors, and to ensure it will have the best chance of successfully helping them, we would like to carry out further research. 

In this project we are:

• Talking to young people who have had a sarcoma as a child, teenager or young adult about their views and experiences of being physically active, what challenges or difficulties they have had with being active, and what they think could help to make keeping active easier.

• Working with survivors, parents and healthcare professionals to share, discuss and develop ideas for how we can help survivors to be physically active. In particular, we will be holding co-design workshops for young people who have had cancer to gain their views on the BEACON support programme.

Ultimately, this project will help to refine the design of the BEACON support programme to ensure it meets the needs of all young people who have had cancer, including those who have had sarcoma.