The challenge

Many women complete active breast cancer treatment without accessible, ongoing rehabilitation, leaving an unmet need for safe, daily, at home support to rebuild physical and mental well-being.

In the UK, breast cancer incidence is ~56,800 new cases per year in women and projected to rise to ~69,900 by 2038–2040, underscoring the population need for scaleable rehab.

Digital delivery reduces access barriers for people who are time poor, need privacy, have health limitations, or live in rural areas, enabling them to participate without travel. This matters in the South West’s rural and coastal context where access to in-person rehabilitation can be limited.

The solution

Gentle Recovery is an online rehabilitation programme offering yoga-based, oncology-informed exercise and wellbeing support for individuals recovering from breast cancer. Created by physiotherapist and yoga teacher India Gooderham, the programme is grounded in clinical experience in oncology and palliative care, combined with expertise in scar tissue therapy. It is designed to help patients reestablish daily habits that improve strength, mobility, lymphatic health, and psychological resilience.

By delivering rehabilitation digitally, the programme removes barriers such as travel requirements, time pressures, privacy concerns, and health related limitations, providing a holistic, home-based route to physical, psychological and emotional recovery.

The 12-module digital programme provides:

• Daily yoga-based oncology exercise sessions
• A structured daily walking plan
• Lymph drainage exercises
• Educational modules on nutrition, sleep and menopause
• Audio-based relaxation exercises
• Access to a community hub and Q&A space

In 2024, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust subsidised places on the Gentle Recovery programme for 23 breast cancer patients in its Breast Care Unit.

Our work in partnership

After a promising pilot, Gentle Recovery was selected by Health Innovation South West as part of a competitive selection process for our Cancer Innovation Challenge – a one-year programme to support innovators to understand the conditions for success in scaling and spreading their innovation tackling cancer. The evaluation provided an invaluable opportunity to refine the programme and collaborate with experts who could help shape its future.

In 2025-26 we worked with Gentle Recovery and Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust to deliver an independent evaluation of Gentle Recovery being deployed in a real-world setting.

Our innovation support delivered a range of offers that were tailored to the needs and interests of the Gentle Recovery team. Activities included providing support and brokering of NHS and industry partnerships. We worked with Gentle Recovery to develop their value proposition and communication of value to different audiences.

Health Innovation South West also delivered social value advice and guidance, such as undertaking health equity assessments and developing skills in net zero planning to help with environmental sustainability.

Together the real-world evaluation and innovation support offered will play a critical role in building the learning evidence needed to enable conditions for scale and spread.

Read our full evaluation report.

The early results and testimonials were both encouraging and inspiring, providing strong evidence of the benefits Gentle Recovery can offer. This data will be crucial in engaging hospitals who may wish to share the programme with their patients, as well as reassuring women considering joining privately.”

India Gooderham, Founder, Gentle Recovery

Our impact 

Interviews and surveys conducted as part of our 2025-26 evaluation found:

• Improvements in physical health, stress levels, anxiety and mood.
• Increased motivation to make positive lifestyle changes.
• Digital delivery enabled patients to fit rehabilitation easily into their daily lives at a time that suited them, keep the nature of their diagnosis private, and attend if they were time-poor, if their health restricted them, or if they lived in rural areas.

Potential if scaled nationally:

• Lower travel and parking costs for patients
• Reduced DNAs for rehab
• More efficient staff time
• Improved long term outcomes through increased physical activity—all of which strengthen the value case for adoption.*

*Inference grounded in the digital equity/access findings and real-world evaluation model.

What’s next? 

We will use the evaluation findings to engage Integrated Care Boards and additional NHS trusts for adoption, refine content and delivery based on insights, and explore integration with local cancer support pathways.

The evidence also forms part of our wider work supporting cancer care innovations across the region.