Survivor Thrivers celebrate decade of living
Posted By CECILIA NASMITH CNASMITH@NORTHUMBERLANDTODAY.COM
Posted 2 months ago
Last month's The Power of Pink gala celebrated 10 years on the water for the Survivor Thrivers dragon boat team.
Organizer Sandy Ward pulled together a pink-themed event which attracted 200 people to Port Hope's Capitol Theatre to enjoy pampering stations, fashion shows, wine and chocolate tastings and the debut of a documentary, The Dragon Emerges, produced by team member Delphine White.
Six team members attended at Northumberland Hills Hospital recently to present $5,000 of the proceeds to support the Ontario Breast Cancer Screening program at the Clay and Elaine Elliott Women's Health Centre. They stayed around afterwards to reminisce about the decade being celebrated.
Ward was still talking about The Dragon Emerges, which she termed an inspiring survivor movie about dragon boating. Featuring interviews with a number of survivors, it brought goose bumps to many -- especially, for vice-president Diane Sumner, when the drumming started.
Drumming is done on each dragon boat to pace the paddlers ("Just for the record, we never row -- we paddle," treasurer Vera Goldacker noted).
Each boat holds the drummer, the steersman and up to 20 paddlers, carefully stationed to balance weight and paddling capabilities (whether a paddler favours one side or the other, for example).
The Survivor Thrivers team is much larger than 20, Goldacker said, because members are sometimes unavailable due to illness or personal problems.
Outgoing president Edith Carr is one of seven paddlers and supporters who have been involved for the entire 10 years, the others being Cathy Dudley, Suzanne Liptay, Helen Mendum, Trish Russell, Leslie Weatherby and Betty Wakely.
It was a decade ago when a few local women heard about the use of the ancient sport of dragon boating by a British Columbia sports physician, Don McKenzie, as a therapeutic regimen for breast cancer survivors.
By 1999, local breast cancer survivors were actively fundraising and searching for sponsors in what seemed the distant hope of purchasing a dragon boat. But the community got on board and the hope was realized.
They still have that old dragon boat, Goldacker said, but they don't use it.
"It's about 500 pounds heavier than the standard now -- they have improved dragon boats," she explained.
Looking back, she said, paddling a heavier dragon boat made the women stronger. On the other hand, when they got the lighter one, it seems as if they just flew along.
Members travel across the country to participate in both regular and breast cancer dragon boat meets each year, but probably their most exciting win came in the 2007 Windsor international event. The $3,000 they won -- and donated to the hospital -- was almost secondary to the excitement.
"The race we won was so close, we couldn't call it and they didn't tell us," Goldacker said.
"When we found out, it was so uplifting. We were three paddlers short, with unknowns in the boat."
"We all danced when they yelled out, 'Survivor Thrivers are number one,'" vice-president Diane Sumner recalled.
But, as Ward noted, "It's not about winning the festival. It's about winning in life."
The team's next big event is in Peterborough next June, when the International Dragon Boat Races for Breast Cancer will be held. Some 60 teams are expected to participate in this event and, with some new paddlers on board for the coming year. Survivor Thrivers are confident.
Many of the paddlers are amazed to do so well when they are far from natural-born athletes.
One of the team's newest members, Sandra Williston, joined in August after learning about the team at support group meetings.
"I've never been on a team before. I don't even know how to swim," Williston said.
"A team sport which is a water sport is just so out of my line, so much so that my brother doesn't believe I'm on the team."
Sumner learned of the group while picking up a prescription. A tear was running down her face, and the pharmacist handed her one of the team's pink pamphlets.
"I have never been part of a team since basketball in high school," she admitted.
"I'll never forget my first practice. My hair was just growing back in. I came home, and my girlfriend said, 'You must be exhausted.' I said, 'I am so pumped!'"
It's a good emotional exercise too, with the camaraderie that develops among teammates.
"One of the benefits of breast cancer is meeting these wonderful women. It's been a blast," Sumner p>"You get beyond your illness and look toward other things. We only talk about (illness) if there's a recurrence. Most of the time, we're out there enjoying ourselves."
"There's life after breast cancer, for sure," Ward agreed.
New team members are always welcome, she added -- anyone who's had breast cancer.
"We do not require that you have any specific skills or fitness levels."
Anyone interested can call the new team president, Mary Coleman, at 905-885-4972 (or any member of the team).
As well, women who have had breast cancer but have no interest in dragon boating are cordially invited to the breast cancer support group they facilitate. Meetings are held the second Wednesday of each month at 6:30 p. m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Port Hope.
Ward invites anyone interested in more information on the support group to call her at 289-252-0881.
