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City dance group helps cancer patients get moving

Adele Wilkinsonand
Kevin Ncube,East Midlands
News imageBBC Image shows a group of 17 people from the Bollywood dance group standing together smiling and laughing. Some members of the group are wearing shirts that say move against cancer. BBC
The group have been meeting every Thursday to complete a Bollywood-style block dance programme

A dance group in Leicester is helping people with cancer exercise in "a safe environment" where "there is no pressure".

The group meet every Thursday at the Belgrave Neighbourhood Centre for Bollywood-themed dance sessions.

The class is held in collaboration with national charity Move Against Cancer, Apnapan cancer support group and local instructor Jayna Dance Academy.

Indy Samra, development lead at Apnapan, said: "There have been studies done around movement and cancer, that it can reduce cancer fatigue during and post treatment."

'Move mentors'

The group, formed in 2022, welcome people living with and beyond cancer, including caregivers, family and the bereaved.

Members completed a Bollywood block dance programme on Wednesday to mark World Cancer Day, and they have more of those dance sessions planned throughout 2026.

Samra said it was all about "moving your way to cancer and how that looks for each individual".

"There's no pressure, it's a safe environment," she added.

"We have our move mentors that have taken the training, and they're at hand to offer that peer support in a very relaxed and friendly environment."

News imageImage shows Indy Samra on the left from Apnapan wearing a black hoodie that says Apnapan on it. She's wearing tinted glasses and has long black hair. Her arm is around Nazeem Bi, in the middle who is wearing a blue hoodie which says 5k your way move against cancer on it, with the move against cancer logo on it. She also has black hair but that is shoulder length. On the right is dance instructor Janyna Patel who is wearing a black hoodie which says move against cancer.movementcharity.org on it. She has long black hair which is tied into pigtails.
Indy Samra, on the left, said the group was about moving in a way that worked for the individual

Nazeem Bi, Move Against Cancer's operations director, joined the dance sessions at the Belgrave Centre after her cancer diagnosis.

She said: "I was diagnosed with cancer four years ago. I joined Move Against Cancer two years ago, because I knew there were lots of benefits to movement and that not a lot of people knew about it.

"There's lots of studies now that say you should move if you've got cancer and I wanted to spread that message and get people moving the way they want to."

As well as the dance sessions, the group keeps members well-fed with a variety of food on offer.

Dance instructor Janyna Patel said "The magic is created within the dance class.

"It's the participants that get to come and join and we all have fun together.

"There's no stress and everyone leaves it at the door and just has fun."

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