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, but I expect it has been the same everywhere in that COVID has impacted greatly on our ability over the past few years to collaborate and network as we had done previously. I am reaching out to reconnect with past members and associates and hopefully create new networks and I would like to communicate with you about how RRI can network and collaborate with Dragons Abreast globally.
I live in Brisbane, Australia and have a long association with Dragons Abreast in Australia. I was one of the founding members here and while I don't paddle now, I still have long standing relationships with many of the women who do. I work in a cancer support centre which also helps me stay connected with DAA members and of course it's a great resource for referral for peer support and connection.
We have an e-newsletter, Bloom, which is distributed twice each year; we host online webinars; and prior to COVID, RRI hosted face to face conferences bi-annually around the world. The on-line events were introduced to help take the place of the face-to-face conferences and we will continue to offer these, and we are working towards bringing back our conferences soon.
Individuals can become members simply by registering to receive a copy of Bloom; and we have a variety of membership categories that relate to organisations. I have attached a copy of member categories for your information. I am sure you agree that when our voices join, we can achieve much and improve outcomes for those affected by breast cancer and I hope you may be interested in collaborating with us as one of our many voices globally. RRI's main goal is making a difference through peer connection and through my own experience, I can think of no better model of peer support in action, than Dragons Abreast.
I am very happy to answer any questions you may have and if it would be easier, very happy to arrange a Zoom conversation with you sometime. I have also attached a link to our website for more information - reachtorecoveryinternational.org
