Stay in shape with FIT Together in your own living room!
Mark and Kathy Baldridge are avid birders, and as a result, frequent visitors to “Deep Southern Arizona” from their home in University Place, Washington. You may have seen them in an AnCan Group – we’ve been supporting the Baldridges since 2021.
Recently Mark mentioned an at home exercise program in a group, so we encouraged him to tell us more so all AnCan’rs living with cancer could participate… with or without their care partner.
This October 17th, AnCan will participate in the OHSU-Fred Hutch Prostate Cancer Summit. Dr. Kerri Winters is also speaking, and Dr. E (Eleni Efstathiou), the new Chief of Genitourinary Cancer at OHSU, has already set up a time for us to meet. We’ll be writing about the Summit closer to the date. (rick davis)
Back in high school, I did multiple pushups before I went to bed. Fast-forward 50 years and I was unable to do a single pushup. Over the years, I’d fooled myself into thinking I was in ‘decent shape’ because I took long walks several times a week. The truth was that after being diagnosed with osteoporosis, 24 months of Hormone Therapy and a lack of upper body exercise, my overall strength had significantly declined.
Fortunately, I discovered an online exercise program FIT Together for cancer survivors and their partners. FIT Together is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2014 under the leadership of Dr. Kerri Winters-Stone and Jessica Sitemba. Dr. Winters-Stone has a PhD in Human Performance and has been conducting research in exercise oncology for 20 years. She has run over 15 clinical trials funded by NIH and cancer non-profits. I have participated in two of Dr. Winters-Stone’s clinical trials run through Oregon Health Sciences University – OHSU.
I’ve attended FIT Together classes for a year and can attest that the instructors are excellent. They demonstrate each exercise and then give tips to ensure each participant correctly performs the exercise. The instructors individualize and tailor movements and exercises to accommodate each person’s needs—no matter what the person’s fitness level. For instance, pushups can be performed in many different ways (e.g. against a wall/desk/chair or on hands and knees/feet).
The classes are held twice per week at various times virtually. I love the convenience of performing these exercises at home and look forward to each class. All you need for the classes are dumbbells, a resistance band, stretch strap and an exercise mat. The cost for this equipment is quite reasonable—less than $75.
There are several classes to choose from: strength training, strength/cardio and an exercise class for couples. Classes are very reasonably priced— around $5 per session for a 12 week/24 session class… even less if two of you join together.
I participate in the strength training class and physically feel much better about myself. It’s been really encouraging to see that I’ve slowly gained upper body strength. While I still can’t do a pushup on my hands and toes, I can perform 12 pushups on my hands and knees—I’m on my way to performing a full pushup.
I highly recommend these classes and hope to see some of you in a class—you won’t be disappointed!
This essay has circulated among medical folks, and I thought we might benefit from it.
The Bridge
by KJ Ramsey
The medication you don’t want to take, the habit you don’t want to start, the conversation you don’t want to have, the test you don’t want to get. It’s a bridge.
You don’t have to love the bridge. You just have to walk across it.
I found this bridge on a hike and stood at the beginning of it for a minute thinking about all the times I’ve used this word in a room with a patient who was afraid of what came next.
A bridge is not the destination. Nobody moves to a bridge. Nobody stays on a bridge. A bridge is the thing between where you are and where you need to be and its only job is to get you across.
You don’t judge a bridge. You don’t stand at the beginning of one and criticize the materials or the design or the length. You don’t look at it and say this isn’t how I would have built it. You just step onto it because the other side has something you want and this is the way across.
You don’t judge how long the bridge is. Some bridges are short and you cross them in a day. A conversation, an appointment, a decision you’ve been avoiding. Some bridges take months. A recovery, a medication, a season of grief, a complete rebuilding of the way you eat or move or think. The length of the bridge is not the point. The crossing is the point.
Sometimes you stop in the middle. You stall. You stand there looking at how far you’ve come and how far you still have to go and neither distance feels manageable. That’s okay. Standing still on a bridge is not the same as going backward. You’re still on it. You’re still between where you were and where you’re going and standing there for a while doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It means you’re catching your breath.
There is no right way to cross a bridge. Some people walk fast with their eyes on the other side. Some people walk slow and look at the water underneath. Some people stop 4 times. Some people almost turn around and then don’t. All of them get across if they keep going and the bridge doesn’t care how long it takes.
The bridge is teaching you something while you’re on it. Not after. While. The medication you didn’t want to take is showing you what your body feels like when it has support. The habit you didn’t want to start is showing you that you’re capable of something you thought you weren’t. The conversation you didn’t want to have is showing you that the weight gets lighter once you share it. The bridge is not just the path to the lesson. The bridge is the lesson.
I’ve watched patients stand at the beginning of a bridge and refuse to step onto it because they couldn’t see the other side. I’ve watched patients step onto it and want to turn back because the middle felt worse than the beginning. I’ve watched patients get to the other side and turn around and look at the bridge and say “that wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be” and I’ve heard that sentence a thousand times and it’s true almost every time.
The thing you’re avoiding right now is a bridge. The thing that feels uncomfortable, inconvenient, or scary is a bridge. You don’t have to love it. You don’t have to understand why it was built this way or why it’s this long or why you’re the one who has to cross it.
You just have to take the next step. One step. Not the whole bridge. The next step. The bridge will hold you. It was built for this.
The original version of “The Bridge” by KJ Ramsey, as posted on her official website, kjramsey.com
This reminds me of an invite I wrote to you 3 years ago:
In Between
We work with our oncologists to maximize our survival.
In MSF, we have worked on maximizing the number of hours we enjoy each day by focusing on the present.
Here is my idea to find lots and lots of brand-new minutes to live in each hour:
Remember this picture? What is it a picture of?
When we look out at a scene or see a picture, there is a foreground of objects that we look at. That’s the figure. There is a background, far less important, barely even noticed. That’s the ground.
It’s the same with time. There are the things we do; they are on the calendar and take up all our consciousness. Then there is the useless time in between. Driving from one thing to another. Walking up the stairs. Waiting on hold. Sitting in the waiting room. The pause between forkfuls. The white space on the calendar. Waiting for someone to answer the phone.
Try changing your awareness from the figure to the ground—not just with space but with time. Try becoming as aware of the time in between as the activity we are doing. You don’t know it’s there until you look for it.
I’m hoping that by mining this time in between, we can gain a hundred precious minutes a day.
AnCan’s ambitious CEO and Founder, Rick Davis, recently sat down with Rarity Life, the magazine published by Same But Different Creative, to share the deeply personal journey that led to the creation of AnCan.
In the interview, Rick reflects on his early days navigating a prostate cancer diagnosis — a moment that reshaped his life & his understanding of what true support should look like. Like so many survivors and thrivers, he quickly discovered that information alone isn’t enough. What people often need most is connection — the chance to speak openly with others who truly understand the lived experience of cancer.
That realization became the foundation of AnCan.
Rick shares how traditional support models don’t always meet people where they are. Geographic limitations, physical health challenges, financial strain, rare diagnoses, and even the emotional weight of walking into an in-person group can all create barriers. For many, simply showing up can feel overwhelming.
AnCan was built to remove as many of those barriers as possible.
Rick’s full interview in Rarity Life offers an inspiring look at leadership shaped by lived experience, and a reminder that meaningful change often begins with one person asking: How can we do this better?
AnCan GU ASCO26 survivorship poster: participants strongly endorse our Groups
For release on Monday, Feb 23, 2026
AnCan Foundation strongly believes we run the best support groups available!! We can now release the first results of our 2024 AnCan Participant Survey that confirms that our participants think so too. This first batch of results is taken from almost 300 prostate cancer responses at all levels of disease.
99% of respondents would recommend AnCan Groups
66% improved Quality of Life – 83% noted reduced stress; 62% improved nutrition; 56% increased exercise
88% advocated better for themselves and AnCan influenced over half (54%) the treatment paths
47% made new friendships – AnCan’s personal favorite since this extends support well beyond our Groups
If you’re attending GU ASCO26 , please stop by our poster on Friday, Feb 27 to meet Dr. John Antonucci, discuss these astonishing results and the AnCan method, and pick up a flyer of the poster.
Evaluating the impact of virtual peer-led support groups on prostate cancer survivorship: the AnCan experience.
John Antonucci*, Boykin B. Jordan, Anita Oppong, Richard Davis
Abstract Number: 265
Poster Board Number: A23
Session Title: Poster Session B: Prostate Cancer and Urothelial Carcinoma
Date and Time: February 27, 2026, 11:30 AM-12:45 PM; 4:45 PM-5:45 PM (PST)
Background: Comprehensive prostate cancer (PCa) survivorship requires more than just clinical care, including education, psychosocial support, self-advocacy, and lifestyle guidance—needs often unmet by traditional oncology visits. Virtual peer-led support groups, such as those offered by the AnCan Foundation, offer accessible, real-time platforms for patients to share experiences, receive guidance, and foster community, regardless of geography. This study evaluates the impact of AnCan participation on factors known to be associated with a better quality of life (QOL) among PCa survivors.
Methods: A web-based survey was administered in 2024 to PCa survivors who attended or expressed interest in AnCan meetings. Respondents (N=294) provided demographic information and rated AnCan’s impact on QOL, peer support, self-advocacy, and satisfaction. Data were analyzed to assess the subjective influence of AnCan’s virtual support model on survivorship.
Results: (2021 results are in brackets for comparison.) Most respondents were in their 60s–70s (75%), highly educated (82%), and 55% had incomes over $100,000. Eighty-three percent had someone in their lives they could rely on and with whom they maintained regular contact.
Nearly all (97%) found AnCan meetings helpful for disease understanding, learning options, and well-being. Sixty-six percent reported improved QOL; 83% [50%] noted reduced stress; 62% [38%] improved nutrition; and 56% [58%] increased exercise. Satisfaction was high, with 99% recommending AnCan.
AnCan involvement enhanced self-advocacy (88%), improved patient-provider communication, and improved decision-making. Seventy percent brought information from AnCan to their providers, 49% added new providers, and 40% changed their lead provider. Over half (54%) reported that AnCan influenced their treatment path.
Socially, 55% [43%] connected with peers outside meetings, and 47% made new friendships.
Conclusions: Survey responses indicate that the AnCan virtual peer-led model, to be described in the poster, meaningfully increases patient knowledge, empowers self-advocacy, reduces stress, and fosters healthy behaviors, improving quality of life for PCa survivors. We advocate for integrating such peer support into NCCN, AUA, and ASCO survivorship guidelines.
CNTV’s recent video features an interview with AnCan founder, Rick Davis. He explains that he started AnCan after his own diagnosis in 2007, after realizing inadequate support options, especially for those in remote areas. AnCan aims to eliminate barriers to entry for its various support groups, which range from cancer to chronic diseases. AnCan empowers patients to “Be your own best advocate” by providing them with the knowledge to speak confidently with their healthcare providers and offering peer-to-peer support.
Mark and Kathy Baldridge are avid birders, and as a result, frequent visitors to “Deep Southern Arizona” from their home in University Place, Washington. You may have seen them in an AnCan Group – we’ve been supporting the Baldridges since 2021.
