EXERCISE - BCA's Dragon Boat Team - "Busting Out"

News June 2010

About Us

We're all in the same boat. Literally and figuratively. The literal boat is a beauty--long and sleek,adorned with a gilded dragon's head and tail--swift and sturdy. The euphemistic vessel is another story--a hapless abomination. Breast cancer! We all have breast cancer. Ours is a perilous craft!

"We" are "Busting Out" Breast Cancer Action's dragon boat team. Plucked from diverse age groups,professions,backgrounds and fitness levels we have been plunked in both these boats by the great equalizer cancer.

We have become a team. Seventy strong. Our mission is simple:to raise awareness of this disgusting disease which is systematically robbing us of our friends,our dreams,our futures. In the process we have developed bonds which can never be broken and strength which will serve us well in whatever may lie ahead.

Neophyte athletes,most of us. Propelled by fear and hope and desperation .Pushing ourselves beyond limits we thought were possible we challenge the bodies that have betrayed us. We paddle with fury,fired by a unique combination of rage and joy and love. We paddle for ourselves and for our children.We paddle for our friends who have lost the fight.We paddle for Nicole and Carol and Linda and Norma......

Ours is not a somber team however. Raucous laughter whirls around us as we practice on the Rideau River. Lusty singing draws attention to the women in the fuchsia shirts,many breastless or lopsided like Amazon warriors. We twist. We shout.

We have finished our tenth season. Travel has become an important part of our agenda. Competing in festivals far and wide has fueled our latent competitiveness. We will win the race. We will win the battle! more info >>

"I had read about the survivor dragon boat teams before my initial diagnosis, but never imagined that it would be for me. With the wonderful support of the team members and the fabulous coaching we've been fortunate to receive, I've learned a new skill, joined a wonderful team, and feel privileged to be part of a worldwide movement helping breast cancer survivors enjoy better health and improved fitness. This is just about the most fun thing I've ever done in my life, and even after just one season (and only part of a season at that) I miss being on the water and can't wait for spring!" Dragon Boat member

For more information please visit www.bustingout.ca.

“Abreast in Australia 2007” International Dragon Boat Regatta.

It was a time of magical moments for 34 members of our Dragon Boat team. For three exhilarating, intoxicating days in September, we joined almost 2000 breast cancer survivors for the “Abreast in Australia 2007” International Dragon Boat Regatta. Just as “Busting Out” celebrated our 10th anniversary this year, we were excited to help Australia’s “Dragons Abreast” commemorate their 10th year on the water. Pink paddlers from all over the world converged on Australia’s Sunshine Coast at Caloundra. The “Abreast in Australia” Organizing Committee can wear their pink proudly, as they successfully created an amazing experience, forever to be etched in our memories – despite chemobrain!

Ottawa was well represented with two boats: “Busting Out” and “Busting Out Again.” As our numbers were filled out with a few members of the “Amazons” from Perth, Australia, along with a paddler from Tasmania and Vancouver, we became “Busting Out with Amazons” and “Busting Out Again with Amazons”. “Busting Out Again” did us proud by making it into the semi-finals! It wasn’t all paddling though. Those Aussies are a hospitable bunch. We marched through the streets of Caloundra in a street parade, and we played and partied at “Aussie World”, a fabulously fun amusement park. We whooped it up, we cheered, we sang. We danced, we laughed, and yes, we cried. And we made memories.

The Flower Ceremony is always a moving part of our dragon boat festivals, when we reflect in a minute of silence to honour and remember those for whom the race is over. To share the words of one of our Australian friends, “There was a silence that was so thick I felt I could reach into it and feel it wrap around me. Everyone seemed to be melted together in the bubble of this special moment, which continued to float above the surface as we scattered the thousands of petals onto the water.” “Abreast in Australia” was a place where the statistics of breast cancer became very real, in the form of human faces – a vast field of faces that imparted a deep understanding of our global sisterhood. But it was a beautiful field of dreams: 2000 faces giving life and meaning to our hopes and dreams for a world without breast cancer.