About Us 

Our story


In 2007, Professor Anna Campbell published the results of a study showing that it was safe and effective for women diagnosed with breast cancer to exercise during chemotherapy / radiotherapy in a community-based group setting.


This study was one of the first to demonstrate how to deliver a community exercise programme for people with cancer. All the circuit classes took place in local council leisure centres. As a consequence, Professor Campbell established CanRehab Ltd in order to train fitness instructors so they could confidently provide safe, effective and individualised programmes for people during and after cancer treatment.


CanRehab has now trained over 700 fitness and health professionals throughout the UK and Northern Ireland and UKActive recognized CanRehab in 2017 as winner of the specialist-training provider. CanRehab training courses are now being used as a template for similar training courses in Spain, Portugal, USA and Canada.


Meet the team

We have a small team that includes:

  • Founder and Chair Anna Campbell

    Anna Campbell is Professor in Clinical Exercise Science at Edinburgh Napier University. Her first degree is in Immunology and she has a PhD in Biochemistry.  For the past 19 years she has worked in the field of exercise oncology and has been instrumental in the implementation of evidence-based exercise programmes for people affected by cancer worldwide. 


    She is principal investigator / co-investigator on Macmillan, National Institute for Health Research, Chief Scientific Office and Breast Cancer Now funded research grants and has published over 50 peer reviewed research papers and three educational book chapters on cancer and exercise. 


    As key advisor to Macmillan Cancer Care, she worked on the development of the Move More programmes in Scotland and the evaluation of the UK wide Move More programmes. 

    Professor Campbell is also Director of CanRehab (www.canrehab.co.uk) - an international provider of training on exercise-based cancer rehabilitation for health professionals and fitness specialists.  She is part of a small international working group of exercise oncology experts responsible for updating the evidence-based exercise prescription guidelines and the guidelines for the provision of clinical and community-based exercise programmes for cancer patients and survivors.  


Charity Manager

Finance Manager

Trustee Board

Our varied and dedicated board team of Trustees are responsible for making sure our charity is doing what it was set up to do:


  • Rebecca Robinson

    Rebecca is a consultant in sports and exercise medicine with special interest in exercise in cancer care. Currently, she is providing medical care for people affected by cancer at CHHP London clinic and working to bring exercise medicine closer into the NHS.


    Rebecca also works in elite sport where every athlete has a team around them (medical and sport science team), which can be a good model for rehabilitation through cancer.


    When she's not working, she enjoys running, and even the challenges of injury-rehab sometimes as well as treating athletes and patients.