JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville area high school teacher Cathy Soud is battling a second bout with cancer, one that first struck about seven years ago.
“It’s incurable, it just keeps coming back,” she said of her myeloma, a cancer of blood plasma.
She recalled first suspecting a relapse in March.
“I’d had some pain in my shoulder and my hip. And myeloma tends to settle in bones,” Soud said.
She spoke with First Coast News moments after completing a Pilates workout at Anytime Fitness in Jacksonville. She and instructor Ana Bolt-Turrall meet there twice a week, and Soud said the sessions are making a difference for her.
“It has given me a focus on general wellness,” Soud said. “While I’ve been having the treatments, all those places that hurt don’t hurt anymore, and I’ve gradually been able to gain more strength.”
Part of her strength undeniably goes beyond the physical, considering that she doesn’t anticipate ever being cancer-free.
“I think it’s working from the inside out, the breathing aspect of it,” Bolt-Turrall described the effect. “I can see that she is progressing, that it’s not the same, over and over. She always has a great attitude.”
Soud, a Spanish teacher at Bolles High School of about 35 years, called herself a Pilates apostle, “because you can start slowly and it’s tailored to your particular needs.”
“Particularly if you feel like you’re older and you can’t do a lot of things. It’s not true. You can do a lot with Pilates.”
Using Pilates – a form of exercise that’s less about brute strength than about breathing, posture, stamina, concentration and relaxation – appears to have done a lot for Soud.
“Little by little, I’ve gotten stronger, and I’ve gained a lot of confidence, that’s been the main thing,” she said.
Bolt-Turrall summarized what she has heard about the feedback from her client’s physician.
“The doctor actually has mentioned to her that he has seen improvement in her posture, he has seen improvement in her gait, he also has seen improvement in her confidence.”
There was that word “confidence” again, something both instructor and student said are an invisible – and indispensable – edge in fitness, especially when battling a health challenge.
“There’s mind, body, and spirit connections. And that’s the beauty of Pilates,” Bolt-Turrall said.
“Whenever I leave here I always feel really good,” Soud described the immediate benefit. “I always feel really good the next day as well.”
And although the medical prognosis might be that her myeloma will never go away altogether, both Soud and Bolt-Turrall offered their own stance about fighting the good fight, regardless.
“It’s not going to beat her, and she has this great attitude and passion for life,” the instructor said.
With a happy glow and just a hint of sweat as she got ready to leave, Soud affirmed, “I am determined. I just want to keep doing this.”