How a YMCA program supporting cancer recovery brought Diane closer to her community

Meet Diane. When Diane first heard about the YMCA’s LiveWell program, she almost dismissed it outright.

“I’m not a gym rat,” she would tell anyone who asked. “I couldn’t be further from it.”

But in the months after her breast cancer diagnosis Diane was looking for something to anchor her. A social worker at Juravinski Hospital, mentioned CanWell, a 12‑week YMCA program offered in collaboration with Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University, designed to support people recovering from cancer through gentle, guided exercise, and community connection. Her good friend, Christy, echoed the recommendation, and even though Diane wasn’t sure she belonged at a gym, she decided to try.

When Diane walked into the Les Chater Family YMCA for the first time, she felt like a “fish out of water.” She worried she wouldn’t know how to use the machines, that people would stare, that she wouldn’t fit in.

But then she met Coach Chris, a calm, encouraging presence who became central to her experience.

He walked her through the equipment, set her up with a personalized routine, and checked in every time he saw her.

“Hey Diane, how’s it going? What have you done today?” He would ask, in a way that felt welcoming.

Those small moments mattered. Chris’s support was a comfort, and slowly, she began settling into a routine.

The CanWell program gave Diane structure at a time when days felt long and heavy. She started coming in the mornings for aquafit, found her way into Pilates classes. Sometimes she’d even go home, walk the dog, and come right back for another class.

“It gave me something to do—gave me purpose,” she said. “Not to fill my days, but to anchor them.”

Even when she returned to work, she kept swimming, doing evening workouts, and attending classes. She didn’t always feel confident on the fitness floor, but she kept showing up anyway.

“It was resilience,” she laughs now. “Even when my brain said, ‘Nope.’ I came anyway.”

Though Diane didn’t experience the full peer‑to‑peer component of CanWell—she joined just as the program was restarting after COVID—she found community in unexpected places.

She connected with Corinne, the Health and Wellness Supervisor, and LiveWell Specialist who always greeted her with warmth. 

She met instructors like Shannon, whose Tuesday night aquafit and Pilates classes kept her motivated.

She bumped into neighbours she never realized also worked out at the Y; she became friends with a woman she’d first met in a cancer paint class; and eventually—one of her most cherished milestones—she was invited to join the group of regulars who gathered after water exercise for coffee.

“That was my goal,” she says. “To get to that table. One day, a woman asked, ‘Want to get a coffee?’ I called my husband after—I was so excited. I felt like I belonged.”

Diane insists she never had one big moment of realization. 
No dramatic turning point. 
No life‑changing epiphany.

But looking back, the transformation is undeniable.

She became more active than she had ever been in her life, sometimes doing three programs in a single day.

She felt mentally and physically stronger; she created connections that pulled her through a difficult chapter; and she even shared the YMCA experience with her family—bringing her son to badminton nights and encouraging her husband and daughter to join her.

Perhaps most telling? She now knows exactly where she wants to be in retirement.

“I could spend my whole day here,” she says with a smile. “People ask me what I’ll do when I stop teaching, and I say, ‘Go to the Y.’ I wasn’t a Y girl before…but I am now.”

Whether she’s in a Pilates class, getting set-up on the fly machine, or chatting with friends after aquafit, Diane knows she has a place where she belongs.

A place she never expected to find—but one she can’t imagine her life without.