About the programme

World Cancer Research Fund's work empowers people to take action to lead healthier, happier, cancer-free lives. Eating a healthy diet, being more active each day and maintaining a healthy weight are, after not smoking, the most important ways to reduce your cancer risk.

Part of the work of the organisation involves the training and support of Health Professionals, enabling them to help others to make effective changes to their diet and lifestyle to reduce their cancer risk.

World Cancer Research Fund has developed a range of resources, online events and training programmes as part of their educational work. The RSPH accredits their free half-day workshops for Health Professionals (delivered both face-to-face and on-line) as well as their latest free eLearning programme. This online course provides background knowledge about cancer and cancer prevention, including the 10 Cancer Prevention Recommendations and debunking cancer myths.

The course explains the links between lifestyle, diet and cancer and helps the Health Professional to raise the issue of cancer prevention with those they are supporting. It includes a module about the stages people experience when trying to change their lifestyle behaviours and the barriers which need to be overcome. The programme also provides guidance on how to advise those who have lived with cancer, or still do, on how to eat well to cope with common side-effects of treatment and how they can have a healthy diet and lifestyle. The course lasts for two hours and trainees are provided with a certificate to mark their CPD.

How and why RSPH accredited the programmes

RSPH’s review of the training programmes showed that these are high-quality programmes that meet their learning objectives:

• Healthcare Professionals are ideally placed to support people to make positive changes to help reduce the risk of cancer
• The programmes show the key ways in which cancer risk can be reduced, and the science behind this information
• Trainees gain the knowledge and confidence to talk to patients and clients about reducing their risk and how to signpost to relevant services
• The programmes also give the trainees the confidence to support people who have had a cancer diagnosis, or are living with cancer, to eat well during treatment. Before taking this course, the trainees may have found these conversations difficult or felt that they did not have the knowledge to be able to offer any guidance.