Casting for Recovery's final retreat of the year

The final Casting for Recovery (CfR) retreat of 2017 was held at the wonderful Arundell Arms Hotel in Lifton, Devon during the weekend of 20-22 October, with eleven ladies who have, or have had breast cancer, taking part in the unique medical and fly fishing programme.

Casting for Recovery UK and Ireland (CfR) is a charitable project run by The Countryside Alliance Foundation. It works on the simple truth that fly fishing is wonderful therapy for those recovering from breast cancer.

The weekend was a great success with ladies travelling from all over the country to attend. Although the weather was challenging the ladies didn't let Storm Brian get in their way and even made it work to their advantage by learning how to do fly tying.

Along with fly fishing the retreat also featured counselling and medical advice, giving a body and mind experience for the ladies. All the ladies commented on the cathartic and supportive nature of the counselling and medical sessions which punctuated the fishing.

We are extremely grateful to the fly fishing and medical volunteers who take time to ensure that the ladies all enjoy their weekend. We would also like to thank the Arundell Arms Hotel for their fantastic hospitality throughout the weekend. But most of all we are grateful to the ladies for choosing to take the chance and apply for the programme. We hope they all enjoyed it!

Adam Fox-Edwards whose family have owned the Arundell Arms for nearly 60 years said: "It was marvellous hosting this CfR retreat for the third time at the Arundell. It is wonderful to see the ladies confidence growing over the weekend and how learning to fish with others who have gone through a similar experience, gives them something positive and forward looking to enjoy. They were universal in their praise for the scheme and it really acts as a great therapy. They caught fish despite the vile weather from Storm Brian and their energy by the end of the second day was something that I was proud to be part of."

Casting for Recovery's Sue Shaw commented: "The retreat at the Arundell Arms Hotel was truly wonderful, all of the women had an unforgettable weekend and managed to catch some trout too. In fact, one of ladies enjoyed the fishing so much that she had a further couple of hours down at the water after everyone had left and managed to catch again! The ladies were so inspirational and made our final retreat of the year an extra special one."