Breast cancer support group training for triathlon

A group of women from Medway who have all been affected by breast cancer are training for a triathlon which they say will present a different type of challenge.

Team Phoenix Foundation, which was started 10 years ago as a support programme for those who have, or have had, the disease, will be tackling the Hever Castle Triathlon in September.

The group has also been nominated for an Active Award for Kent at next month's BBC Make a Difference Awards.

Group member Shirley Lowe said she found the group "very inspirational", adding: "Actually, we don't talk about cancer, we talk about us - this opportunity is to give back to us. I'm now Shirley, I'm not that lady with the cancer."

Every year the foundation trains a new group of women who were previously strangers to take part in an event.

Leiann Bolton-Clarke, who joined the team two years after undergoing breast cancer treatment, said: "I haven't swam routinely since I was at primary school, [and] I had to learn to ride a bike.

"I felt like I needed a challenge after everything I've been through...as if it [cancer treatment] wasn't challenging enough, but a positive challenge."

Bolton-Clarke added that her children were "cheering me on".

Sharon Griffin, chair of the Team Phoenix Foundation, said it was important that the challenge was difficult.

"They didn't choose to do their cancer treatment, but they've chosen to do something that's completely out of their comfort zone," she said.

The Kent Make a Difference Awards will take place on 22 September at the Quarterhouse in Folkestone.

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