Pokemon Go gives this breast cancer patient a reason to 'get off the couch'

AToronto woman has incorporated Pokemon Go into hercancer treatment plan.

Sixty-year-old Lisa Freedman, a lawyer, has to walk at least 20minutes a day to help recover from the radiation used to treat herbreast cancer.

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But the treatment has left her fatigued.

"I have no energy toget off the couch," she said.And when she did find the energy to go on walks, she said it was
boring.

"When I walked, I didn't have a purpose," she said. "All I'dthink about was, 'I'm walking so my cancer symptoms will getbetter."'

So her 22-year-old son told her to download the mobile Pokemon Goapp to give her a reason to walk around outside.

The cellphone-based game sends players into the real world tosearch for digital monsters, who appear on screen when users hold uptheir iPhones or Android devices in various locations at varioustimes.

"For the last couple of days I've been happily walking aroundthe neighbourhood, finding Pokemon," Freedman said.

"This way I'mnot thinking about the cancer and, you know, it's fun."

But she says her best catch so far was her first. It pops up whenyou first register for an account, wherever you happen to be. AndFreedman was in bed.

"So you open it up, and there's a Pokemon right beside you,staring right beside you. That just kind of got me addictedimmediately."

Freedman said she isn't a long-time Pokemon fan herself, but shewatched her son play the games and watch the TV show as he wasgrowing up the original video game was launched in Japan in 1996,according to the franchise's official website.

But she is a video game fan. She said she plays Mario Kart andsports games with her son, but she's not a huge fan of fightinggames.

Freedman said she thinks Pokemon Go should be advertised as afitness app so that other people outside the game's targetdemographic can benefit from it like she has.