"More shoes and less pills"

Barcelona"On February 14, 2020, I was diagnosed with leukemia and my whole life changed." Martina Claramunt was shaken a few weeks before the general lockdown was decreed due to the pandemic. The basketball player felt unwell and went to the hospital. "Different parts of my body hurt, but I didn't know what was wrong," she says. The diagnosis left her frozen.

"I still don't know how I got out of it, I'm not aware of it. In retrospect, the news is shocking, but overcoming and effort helped me get through it." Sport became her great therapeutic ally. "Basketball helped me from the first minute," acknowledges the JAC Sants player, who cut her hair short.

Her example or that of Izan Balañà, A boy who clung to basketball to overcome a serious relapse of leukemia, have served as inspiration for the Vall d'Hebron Hospital, which has used these successful rehabilitation cases to inspire itself and create a health program. Sport has become a great tool both for cancer prevention and to emphasize its rehabilitation.

"The relapse was a hard blow, but luckily I am here to tell my story. The initial treatment was not so good and I needed a bone marrow transplant. Sport helped me a lot, it became my refuge of escape," explains the young man, who ended up meeting Ricky Rubio.

The opinion of the specialists is unanimous. "Sport always helps with any pathology. Physical exercise is one of the tools we have for all patients. The benefit is obvious. The evidence tells us that patients who do sport have a higher survival rate and an improved quality of life. a continuity beyond the moments with us," analyses Dr. Judith Sánchez-Raya, head of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Service at the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital.

"Exercise is a key tool in the rehabilitation of patients with childhood cancer. It not only improves physical condition – it has cardiovascular and metabolic benefits, activates defences and reduces cognitive problems – but it also has a positive impact on mental and emotional health," confirms Dr. Lucas Moreno, head of Oná.

The side effects of the disease and the treatments can cause muscle weakness, cardiorespiratory problems and chronic fatigue. "There are children who get tired with basic daily activities. That is why we make an individualized assessment and adapt the rehabilitation to each moment of the process," recalls Dr. Esther Toro, a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation.

Every year, a thousand children are diagnosed with cancer in Spain, between 100 and 120 of them at the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital. Although it represents 1% of all neoplasias, it is the second cause of death in children and adolescents, after traffic accidents.

"Boot for life"

The Catalan Basketball Federation (FCBQ) has launched Boot for life, a program that aims to offer sports practice to cancer patients as a therapeutic tool. "We want to help make it easier to return to sports practice and we will use the ball as a therapeutic tool for these cancer patients who are undergoing treatment or who are already recovering and want to return to physical activity in a controlled manner," says Dr. Sílvia Treviño, head of the BQ Salut program. Her motto is very direct: "Less pills and more shoes."