Dr. Forbes joined Hull York Medical School in 2018 as a Career Development Research Fellow with the Yorkshire Cancer Research funded TRANSFORMing Cancer Outcomes in Yorkshire project. She is also part of the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre and the Institute for Clinical and Applied Health Research at the University of Hull.
Originally from Nova Scotia, Canada, Cindy completed her Bachelor of Science in Human Kinetics at St Franicis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia and continued her graduate training at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta. After completing her PhD in 2015 in Exercise Oncology, she then worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at in the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
In 2017, she was awarded a Visiting Research Fellowship with the University of Adelaide in Adelaide, Australia that was awarded as part of the Australian Government’s Endeavour Scholar program. Then in 2019, she was awarded a place as an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (ESPRC) funded GetAMoveOn Fellowship. The GetAMoveOn Network aims to transform health through enabling mobility with the help of digital technologies.
Cindy’s TRANSFORM Career Development Research Fellowship is looking at how physical activity can help improve quality of life and cancer-related outcomes in people living with and beyond cancer, and how digital technology can help support and maintain activity behaviours.
Cindy’s main area of research is examining the role of physical activity and sedentary behaviour on quality of life and cancer-related outcomes among people living with and beyond cancer, particularly among older adults. Additionally, she is looking at how digital technologies – for example, wearable activity trackers, smartphones, and other smart devices – can be used to deliver tailored wellbeing advice and support wellbeing self-management.
A summary of research contributions can be found on ORCID or ResearchGate.
A full list of publications and presentations can be found on Cindy’s ORCID and ResearchGate profiles.
Cindy’s previous fellowship awards and activities, conference and workshop attendance, and social media engagement has allowed her to foster professional relationships with researchers around the world. She is currently collaborating on different projects with researchers in Australia, Canada, Europe, and UK. Selected collaborations highlighted below.
United Kingdom –
GetAMoveOn Network: currently PI on a project with three other Fellows (Bath, Cardiff, Northumbria), funded by this network, to investigate how cancer survivors use wearable activity trackers, and how they can be used them to help people form activity habits.
Europe –
Collaborating on a systematic review investigating the potential inequalities associated with using digital technology in health. This group was recently awarded a small amount of funding to continue this collaboration with future reviews.
Canada –
AtlanticPATH, a regional cohort of more than 35,000 Atlantic Canadians and part of the larger CanPATH National Project. Previously worked as a Research Scientist and currently collaborating with this group on two student led papers.
Australia –
In 2017, Cindy was awarded a very competitive Visiting Postdoctoral Fellowship award from the Government of Australia. At the University of Adelaide in South Australia, she further developed my keen interest in using digital technology to support and deliver lifestyle behaviour change programmes by adapting a sophisticated web-based platform capable of delivering tailored support to be used among Canadian women with breast cancer (PI) and Australian men with metastatic prostate cancer (CoI).
Another Australian collaboration forms part of a prestigious International Investment Initiative (I3) grant awarded by Research England to the University of Hull in collaboration with University Technology Sydney; one of only eight awarded.
Cindy is interested in supervising students that have an interest in looking at how physical activity and/or digital technology can help support people living with and beyond cancer.
Current and past supervisions
Postgraduate research students
- Jordan Curry, PhD Medical Sciences. 2019- present. Hull York Medical School. Project: Effect of physical activity and sedentary behaviour on quality of life in cancer survivorship: feasibility of online-delivered, computer tailored activity and nutrition programs. Primary Supervisor.
- Holly Evans, PhD student. 2018-2021. University of Adelaide. Project: Tailored, home-based physical activity programmes for men with metastatic prostate cancer. Supervisory Committee Member.
Postgraduate students
- Alessandro Recchioni, MSc Medical Sciences. 2020-present. Hull York Medical School. Project: Barriers and facilitators of breathlessness digital self-management interventions in lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients - a systematic review and narrative synthesis. Expert Advisor Member of Panel.
- Samantha Ruilova, MSc Cancer Rehabilitation. 2019-2020. Faculty of Health Sciences. Project: Effect of relocating sedentary time to moderate activity, vigorous activity, walking, or sleep among people with cancer. Second Supervisor.
Undergraduate Students
- Anisha Hasnat & Philip Johnston. Phase II Scholarship and Special Interest Programme Undergraduate Medical Student. 2022. Hull York Medical School. Project: Exploring clinicians’ knowledge of, attitudes, and perceived usefulness of physical activity referral for people living with and beyond cancer.
- William Ashwell & Vaishnavi Sharma. Phase II Scholarship and Special Interest Programme Undergraduate Medical Student. 2022. Hull York Medical School. Project: Neighbourhood characteristics and associations with physical activity levels and self-rated health in cancer survivors.
- Olivia Jobson & Jasmine Teoh. Phase II Scholarship and Special Interest Programme Undergraduate Medical Student. 2022. Hull York Medical School. Project: Yoga for pain in advanced disease: a systematic review.
- Elisha De-Alker. Phase II Scholarship and Special Interest Programme Undergraduate Medical Student. 2021. Hull York Medical School. Project: Characteristics of participants in the English Longitudinal Study of Aging with and without cancer diagnosis: secondary dataset analysis. Project Supervisor.
- Fatima Babar & Afreen Salim, Undergraduate Medical Students. 2020. Hull York Medical School. Project: Nutrition and physical function among people undergoing cancer treatment. Funded by INSPIRE programme. Project Supervisor.
- Fadel Lhaf, Undergraduate Medical Student. 2019. Hull York Medical School. Project: Attitudes, facilitators, and barriers to delivering nutrition and activity counselling/advice to patients with a cancer diagnosis. Funded by INSPIRE programme. Project Supervisor.
- Rebekah Pereira. Undergraduate Medical Student. 2020. Hull York Medical School. Project: Breast cancer risk factors according to mammography exposure and adherence. Supervision and mentorship.
- Natasha Bocchetta. Undergraduate Medical Student. 2020. Hull York Medical School. Project: Environmental correlates of physical activity and quality of life among cancer survivors. Supervision and mentorship.
- Dylan Riley, Undergraduate Medical Student. 2019. Hull York Medical School. Project: Community-based physical activity programmes for people living with and beyond cancer in Yorkshire. Supervision and mentorship.
- Amanda Rundle. Undergraduate Medical Student. 2017-2019. Dalhousie Medical School. Project: Breast Cancer Prevention at Mammography Screening Units and Well Women's Clinics. Supervision Committee Member.