‘We’re crazy tough’: Breast cancer survivors paddle with courage and confidence

Twenty-one women in a 2-tonne dragon boat power over the water, whooping and cheering, as they glide under the Whairepo Lagoon bridge out into Wellington harbour. To mark breast cancer awareness month, Bess Manson joins the CanThrive crew for a paddle.

In the drizzle and chill of a Sunday morning, 21 women paddle their dragon boat into the harbour – a streak of pink on a sea of grey.

“We’re all crazy tough,” says Brenda Little, CanThrive coach and breast cancer survivor.

A little rain or a brisk wind is nothing they can’t handle, she says. Not after all they’ve already been through.

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Powering along in the water, battling or perhaps embracing the elements, there is no time to dwell on the past – the shock of a diagnosis, the fallout of treatment.

The women are too busy concentrating on paddling in time, fighting against the wind, bailing out water from a restless sea. It’s a lesson on how to be in the moment.

Bette Cosgrove is somewhere in the middle of the waka. The breast cancer survivor has paddled for a decade since being diagnosed in 2012.

All members of the CanThrive dragon boat team are breast cancer survivors – a grim common denominator, but one that binds them and turns that blasted experience into something good.

Cosgrove wouldn’t wish the disease that strikes more than 3500 women a year in Aotearoa on anyone, but in retrospect, breast cancer might have been the best thing to have happened to her, she says.

“I’ve met people I might never have met had it not been for my encounter with breast cancer. I have travelled the world to dragon boat competitions – to Bali, the US, Australia, Italy.

“There I was paddling along the Arno River in Florence, I look up and there’s the Duomo! I have had an incredible life since I was diagnosed at 50.”

Melbourne and Sydney harbours, the Arno River, they were pretty spectacular, but there’s something pretty special about being on the water in Wellington, says Cosgrove, who switched from the competitive CanSurvive crew to the newly established CanThrive social team this year.

Te Whanganui a Tara, she’s a ferocious beast at times, she says. Those northerlies can be savage.

“You have to have courage and confidence and guts – all those things you need to deal with breast cancer.”

“On a beautiful day all I can think about is how fortunate I am to be here. It reminds me to be thankful that I am still here to see this,” Cosgrove says.

“Sometimes I say, ‘Look ladies, we beat that b…..d breast cancer, and now we get to do this!’”

Dragon boating is a fantastic sport, according to the Breast Cancer Foundation. Canadian doctor Don McKenzie discovered dragon boating, with its repetitive upper body exercise, could stop women from developing lymphoedema and help them recover from surgery.

Physically, the sport is incredibly rewarding, says Cosgrove, 60. Paddling with the team gave her a sense of empowerment to regain her physical strength after cancer.

“I slowly got fitter and stronger when I had been so broken down by the treatment. Over one year, I had two surgeries, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and medication – every damn treatment you can have. I was completely broken.

“Dragon boating gave back not just my physical well-being but also my emotional well-being.”

The camaraderie and emotional support can’t be underestimated, she says.

Right on, says fellow survivor Carole Rudman, 75, who started dragon boating in 2011.

Paddling has been a godsend, she says. “Someone asked me why I don’t have flabby arms and I tell them, it’s because I paddle! I love the water. I love the exercise, but it’s really about the camaraderie. We are like a family.”

Marlene Soloman, 77, has had breast cancer twice, the last time in 1997.

She started paddling in 2008 after seeing her mate dressed in pink out on the harbour.

“Being with these other women who have been through the same thing, it shifted the focus off me.”

“We don’t talk about breast cancer unless someone needs to, but we have this common denominator which gives us solidarity. We have all had the surgery, the treatment, the recovery, and that bonds us.

Jana Babor is the eldest member of the team. At 80, she’s just switched from the competitive CanSurvive crew to CanThrive. She’s been paddling since 2004 following her diagnosis the same year.

She’s competed overseas plenty of times with her former CanSurvive crew – and did pretty well too.

At the International Breast Cancer Paddlers Committee event in Florida in 2014 theirs was the third-fastest team. In Florence four years later they were second. The event will be held in Aotearoa in April 2023.

The women are a tight unit, in and out of the water.

“We call each other if we need to talk. We’re friends. We laugh. A lot.”

Annette Chapman, 56, isn’t a fan of the sea, but she’s on the water every week with her mates.

Team sports, getting soaked – it’s all well outside her comfort zone, she says.

“I’m an introvert. I don’t do sport but after breast cancer, I wanted to push myself, to not be afraid to go out there and do something different, to make the most of life. In a weird way, this gives me the confidence to do things I would not have done before.”

After an hour of paddling and quite a bit of talking and laughing and general hoopla, the team calls it a day. As we pull up to the boat ramp each paddler pats the pink shoulder in front of them. Each woman holds the hand of the sister beside them.

Solidarity. Camaraderie. A powerhouse in pink.

Breast cancer

• Early detection is the best way to beat breast cancer.

• Breast cancer is the most common cancer for Kiwi women and the third most common cancer overall.

• More than 3500 women across the country are diagnosed with breast cancer every year – that’s nine women a day.

• Every year 25 men are diagnosed with breast cancer in NZ.

• More than 650 Kiwi women a year die from breast cancer.

• Check your breasts regularly. If you notice any unusual changes, get them checked out by your doctor straight away.

• For more information: www.breastcancerfoundation.org.nz

Source: Breast Cancer Foundation