Continuing Strong: Building Community Beyond Cancer
How One YMCA Is Walking Beside Cancer Survivors Beyond the Program
For many cancer survivors, finishing treatment or completing a structured wellness program can bring a mix of pride, uncertainty, and longing for connection. At the Twin River’s YMCA in North Carolina, that truth has been met with compassion, intention, and action through a program called Continuing Strong.
Continuing Strong was created for graduates of Livestrong at the YMCA who were ready for the next chapter of survivorship — one where community, movement, and emotional support continue long after the last session ends.
A Community That Doesn’t Let Go
At its heart, Continuing Strong is about staying connected. It recognizes that survivors don’t stop needing encouragement, understanding, or a place where they belong simply because a program has wrapped up. Instead, this yearlong initiative offers ongoing peer support and wellness opportunities designed specifically for those who have already walked the Livestrong at the YMCA journey.
Weekly gatherings bring people together for social connection and fitness, helping survivors maintain healthy habits while remaining part of a community that understands their experience. YMCA memberships make continued participation more accessible, reinforcing the message that survivors are valued members of the Y family — not temporary guests.
Built With Heart, Led With Purpose
What makes Continuing Strong especially meaningful is the care behind it.
Justice Tomchesson, Senior Program Director at the Twin Rivers YMCA, shared that the program grew from years of conversation and a deep desire to support participants beyond the initial Livestrong experience. With the support of grant funding, the vision became reality — offering graduates a space to stay physically active, socially connected, and emotionally supported.
Justice speaks with pride about the instructors and team who make the program possible — people who remain invested in participants long after the formal program ends. Together, they’ve helped create opportunities for survivors to gather, move, and show up for one another, whether through fitness activities, social outings, or community events that strengthen bonds and foster belonging.
More Than a Program — A Shared Journey
Continuing Strong isn’t just about exercise or scheduled sessions. It’s about honoring the reality that survivorship is ongoing, and that healing is often strengthened through shared experience.
Participants from different Livestrong cohorts come together, creating a multigenerational community of survivors who learn from one another, encourage one another, and grow together. Visual reminders — like different colored shirts representing each cohort — reflect the many journeys that now intersect in one supportive space.
For some, this community has been life changing. Justice shared that simply coaching and directing Continuing Strong has deepened his own sense of purpose, reinforcing how powerful it can be when compassion meets commitment.
Continuing the Commitment to Survivorship
Programs like Continuing Strong remind us that cancer support doesn’t end with treatment — and it doesn’t end with one program. It continues in relationships, in shared movement, in laughter, and in spaces where survivors are seen, valued, and supported for the long haul.
We are grateful to the Twin Rivers YMCA team, Justice Tomchesson, and their partners for showing what it looks like to walk alongside survivors not just for a season, but for the journey ahead.
Because when survivors are given a place to continue strong, healing becomes something they don’t have to do alone.
