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What Surviving Cancer Taught Me

Dr Liz O’Riordan: "I’m a breast cancer surgeon – this is what surviving cancer myself taught me" Daily Telegraph UKBy Rosamund DeanAs a breast surgeon, Dr Liz O’Riordan is well acquainted with worst-case scenarios. So, when she discovered a lump on her breast in 2010, her initial reaction was terror. “I remember howling on the sofa: ‘I’ll be dead in a year,’” she says. “I thought it was the end of the world.” To her relief, the lump was a benign cyst. In 2014, she noticed a...

Angels Abreast

The Nanaimo Dragon Boat Festival 2023 celebrated its 20th anniversary of the festival where the Angels Abreast team was integral in the beginning of the Nanaimo Festival.We hosted a Friday night dinner for all the Survivor teams with food, music, and dancing! One special event at the dinner is to celebrate first year survivors and every year after, circling around the years of survival with many tears and feeling of sisterhood.The Survivor Challenge took place on Saturday where all survivors rac...

Breast Friends Dragon Boat Racing Team Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

25 years ago, in November 1998, two women from the greater Edmonton area, gathered a group of breast cancer survivors together to see if there was enough interest to form a dragon boating team. The interest expressed was significant, so from this point, a volunteer executive was formed. This executive had the formidable task of determining the best path for the team, and began working immediately to create Breast Friends Society, an Alberta charitable organization, registered in February 1999. T...

DIA DEL NIÑO (Children’s Day)

Submitted by: Marta Lapaz, Rosas del PlataTigre , Buenos Aires , ArgentinaEvery year in the winter holidays, that is July for Argentina, we take boys and girls between 5 and 12 years old from the area where we paddle, for a ride in our dragon boat.They expect to see the big, majestic boat enter the bay with the Rosas girls in pink wearing crazy wigs or headbands. “Let's paddle to the beat of the drum” is the slogan.Some of the children come to the meeting in their little kayaks, then line up...

International Connections

By Meri GibsonHow easy is it to connect, extremely so it would seem.I received a WhatsApp message from Irene Chui our national representative to Singapore.It read: Hi Meri, do you know any teams in Germany because I’m going to be going over there for work for 10 days and I’d like to be able to paddle.Sure Irene, let me introduce you to Svenja Franke-Bruhn our national representative for Germany.Ladies say hi to each other, Svenja can you help Irene.The rest is as they say, history, with Iren...

Italian Dragon Sisters

What a wonderful team spirt!by Lucia De Ranieri, IBCPC Vice PresidentItalian Dragon Sisters is a newbie member of IBCPC. I cannot imagine a more beautiful name for this composite team that joins together Italian paddlers from BC teams from the whole of Italy and that fully expresses the sisterhood and camaraderie between breast cancer paddlers.This team was born a few months ago with the intention of giving the opportunity to any BC paddler to independently join this team to compete in dragon bo...

KC Pink Warriors

KC Pink Warriors brought home the medal in the BCS Cup and was competitive in the Women’s division during the Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival!This marks a significant milestone for our team as it was our very first international festival. The city of Vancouver was gorgeous and the thrill of competing in Olympic Village against top-notch teams from around the world has left and indelible mark on our souls.The adventure didn’t stop on the race course, when we weren’t competing we made t...

News from Chemo Savvy, Canada

We had our first local Dragon Boat Festival of the season!We entered three boats of paddlers!We had an amazing presence at this festival!...

News from Germany

Drachenbootfestival Hannover brings PINK DRAGONS together.The team Pink Fusion started as a racing community of pink teams from the Western area of Germany, that is Koblenz, Limburg, Heilbronn, and Aschaffenburg.When we started the first race of the competition on Saturday, the team came together in a boat for the first time. Nobody knew how the team would synchronize.Then the start sign was given, and the team had a good first race, being in second position already. It was wonderful to see how ...

News from Ireland

Regatta PreparationsCork Dragons are celebrating their 10th anniversary this year and holding a Rebel Regatta on Saturday 2nd September in the city. It promises to be a fabulous day of fun and competition and friendships made and renewed.Plurabelle Paddlers are in the final stages of preparation for the forthcoming EDBF Ravenna competitions in September and have entered 2 teams in the competition. They will be joined by Carlow Dragons in representing Ireland at the competition.Remembering Julie ...

News from Sistership, Canada

To celebrate our 25th Anniversary of paddling after breast cancer we launched a TikTok channel and a LinkedIn page.http://www.linkedin.com/in/sistership-dragonboat-assosciation-25-years-stronghttps://www.tiktok.com/@sistershipdbI am a rookie paddler, just fresh from my journey with cancer and I can say that paddling with this team in this sport has changed my life. It keeps healing. We are fierce and we have a fabulous message.Take good care,Paddles Up!Hope to hear from you!JenNews from Sistersh...

News from the WonderBroads

The WonderBroads of Windsor and Essex County celebrated their 20-year anniversary with a party on July 8th.All team members, supporters and contributors to the team were invited to join in the festivities.We had our dragon boat at the site and started by having some of our new members and our Coach dot the eyes of the dragon.Our Assistant Coach and a founding member, Peggy Hurley, along with a few other founding members spoke about our early beginnings and our 20-year journey as a team.We rememb...

Oxford Paddlers for Life

Oxford Paddlers for Life welcomed and thanked Wendy Grose as guest helm to run some paddling sessions for them in August.Thursday 17th August - an evening paddleThursday 24th August - an evening paddlePaddling was of course dependent on the weather.Oxford Paddlers for Life are still organising dates for the September sessions, but there is one confirmed session on Saturday 16th September at 9.30 am with David Coldwell as guest helm. So, if you are in the area then, be sure to pop in to say hi.Wi...

Reach for Recovery (Australia)

There are many organisations that support breast cancer survivors. This is one of them and may be of interest to people.I am the President of Reach to Recovery International (RRI), which serves as an umbrella organisation for other organisations and individuals working in their own countries and communities to improve the quality of life of individuals affected by breast cancer including families. We do this through peer support, advocacy, and peer navigation.We have members throughout the world...

Update from The Bahamas

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Updates from Around the Globe

News from CanadaCanadian Dragon Boat Championships - July 20-24, 2023, Welland, Ontario, Canada.IBCPC Board Member and Rowbust Team Captain Perspective - Linda KuskaI first must CONGRATULATE all the BCS teams who came to the 2023 Canadian Dragon Boat Championships! It was a very exciting few days of racing and for many of you, the first time competing at Nationals!BCS Standard Boat Division:Canal Dragons Hope Floats - Welland, OntarioDragons Abreast - Toronto, OntarioH2O Seincr'eau - Montreal, Q...

Updates from Brazil

The “Encontro Estadual de Remadoras Rosa do Paraná”, which took place on April 13, 14 and 15, 2023, in Curitiba city, only became possible and viable due to the commitment and responsibility of the leader’s team of the ROSA DOS VENTOS (Londrina city), FLOR DE LOTUS (Foz do Iguaçu citu) and CANOHÁ (Curitiba city).The teams from the state of Paraná met in advance, virtually, and made a commitment to hold this event, with the following objective: to build a solid foundation for training D...

Updates from Europe

Go Europe Pink Dragons 1st edition or: Teamwork to make a (COVID) dream come true.Let´s go back in time… Don´t we all remember the year 2020 when many countries didn't allow meeting in person due to the pandemic? When people were restricted to staying at home? These times of lockdown were the beginning of a dream, and this dream has become reality 3 years later with a composite team of pink paddlers united from various European teams supported by some pink friends from Israel and the US.When...

Updates from Latin and South America

Rosas Del PlataCELEBRATION IN PINKby Matilde Yahni, IBCPC National Representative to ArgentinaThe members of Rosa Del Plata don’t need an excuse to party. Our Argentine team of 55 paddlers love delicious food, good music, dancing, and any reason to bring the team together. A group of ladies on our team volunteered to form our “birthday celebration committee”, and they work hard to surprise our 55 BCS pink paddlers at every event with special guests and treats. They invite musicians: jazz s...

Waves of Hope

Waves Of Hope had an official ribbon cutting for our sign at Minnedosa Lake in Minnedosa, Manitoba where we practice.We are sure we have the biggest pink sign around. SSome gals travel 2 hours to practice.We hope this will catch everyone’s eye and aid in our recruitment efforts!!!...

Congress (part 1)

Speech for Congress opening, 14th May 2023Nau mai, haere mai. Tena kotou katoaWelcome to you all.I would like to acknowledge Paula Southgate, Mayor Hamilton, for her welcomeAlso, to acknowledge our three keynote speakers:Professor Ian CampbellLady Tureti MoxonAssociate Professor Logan Walker.Also, here with us today we have European Dragon Boat Federation President and IDBF 4th Vice President Claudio Schermi.And two doctors traveling with the UGO team from Italy.We are so excited to see the repr...

Congress (part 2)

Meri's Speech for Congress opening, 14th May 2023 (continued)I would like to thank our keynote speakers with a small gift of appreciation for sharing your incredible skills and knowledge with us all today.Everyone please show your appreciation in the usual way.Andrew Watson, our health and safety director and himself a medical professional will escort our keynotes out as we move onto the Congress business at hand.Elections I am disappointed that of the over 15,000 paddlers globally that we only ...

Festival 2023

Submitted by Meri GibsonTo recap on the festival, my speech notes for all occasions at which I had the privilege to speak are in the following articles:Meet and Greet EveningCongress OpeningFestival 2023 OpeningFestival 2023 ClosingHere are the videos from the Dragon Boat Festival.Highlights of the 4 days of the Festival Event...

Festival Opening

Welcome Speech for the Festival Opening, 14th April 2023Tena koutou , tena koutou, Tena koutou Katoa.Ko Meri Gibson Taku ingoa,ko kaiwhakahaere International Breast Cancer Paddlers Commission,ko kaiwhakahaere Aotearoa Wahine Toa Ora Trust,Ko Aoraki te Maunga, ko Waimakariri te awa, no Otautahi ahau, ki uta ki tai.No reira, kia ora, huihui mai tatouThank you, Richard, for the introduction. I am Meri Gibson, the President of the International Breast Cancer Paddlers Commission, and the Chair of Aot...

From the desk of the President

From the Desk of Meri Gibson, IBCPC Global President.Oh, my goodness…….wow, wow, and wow.That is all I can say in terms of how amazing the festival in New Zealand was. I know I am biased as it was in my home country, and I know I was behind the bid to bring the festival to New Zealand. but I also know how hard everyone worked from the day the bid was placed to when we won the bid and then the planning began.Each moment of each day was inspirational regardless of what was on offer. The spirit...