STUDENTS in Glasgow are helping to improve the lives of hundreds of people, including children fighting cancer, thanks to a new physical activity programme.

The Glasgow Caledonian University team has been working with 11 organisations across the west of Scotland, providing free advice tailored to each one.

So far, the 44 Masters in Physiotherapy students have worked with a range of groups including Calum’s Cabin, Men Matter Scotland, Glasgow Young Onset Parkinson’s Group and Pollok Utd FC Walking Football Group.

Caroline Speirs, who launched Calum’s Cabins in 2007 to fulfil her 12-year-old son’s dying wish to provide holiday homes for children with cancer or cancer-related illness, said: “It has been amazing working with the students from Glasgow Caledonian University.

“Many of the children have issues with mobility during treatment and there is muscle wastage, so the students designed an interactive and fun online platform specifically for the children to help build muscle and involve their families.

“The students have been brilliant and the feedback from the families has been really positive.”

Second year student Morgan Nisbet has been working closely with mental health charity Men Matter Scotland to find ways to boost activity among its members.

She said: “The charity said the service that was missing was the promotion of physical activity, which is such a hugely important part of physical and mental wellbeing, so we were able to build a webpage specifically for them and the feedback has been great.”

The Masters’ degree module is led by Douglas Lauchlan, senior lecturer in physiotherapy, who said: “Working with and helping our communities is what Glasgow Caledonian is all about.

“This Masters degree is helping to solve a huge shortage in physiotherapists in Scotland and further afield. One of the legacies of COVID-19 is that we are going to have a lot of older, infirm and frail people with conditions that need rehabilitation.

“A lot of the traditional curricula centres around physiotherapists responding when patients get referred to them with problems associated with their health condition.  Health promotion is about targeting these ‘at-risk’ populations and seeing them earlier in that referral process.

“This module is about getting the students to understand what the physical activity guidelines are and taking them out to the community to promote. We encouraged the students to get out there and work with people with specific needs, which is why we’ve been involved with the third sector like children’s cancer and men’s mental health charities.”