The Kootenay Robusters have arrived home from the 17th annual Kaiser Permanente International Dragon Boat Festival in San Francisco pleased with their accomplishments.
They took part in five races and while the team paddled well, it soon became apparent that they weren’t going to win medals.
As the only breast cancer survivor team in the festival (and with an average age of 62) it was unlikely that the team would beat the Amazonian young women in the ultra-competitive women’s division. In order to fit in a few more races the Robusters also entered the mixed division, which wasn’t much better, since they had to compete against teams with 12 men and eight women.
There just wasn’t a division in the festival that fit their profile.
Still, the Robusters headed out on the course with the same focus that they bring to every festival, and were soon impressing spectators and other teams with their precision, positive attitude and ironical team cheer, “Bust or no bust, we are robust!”
Surprisingly, dragon boat racing as a sport for breast cancer survivors has not reached the same levels of participation in California as in other areas.
Few other paddlers at the San Francisco festival knew the story of how Dr. Don MacKenzie, of the Sports Medicine Clinic at UBC, who recruited a dragon boat team of breast cancer survivors to take part in research on breast cancer surgery and upper body exercise.
That made the Robusters’ presence at the festival even more important since one of the team goals is to raise breast cancer awareness and demonstrate the fact that exercise has a role in cancer prevention, as well as in helping survivors return to good health.
As the festival unfolded, it soon became clear that the Robusters were inspiring others, as breast cancer survivors from other teams came to talk to them.
As one young woman, who just finished cancer treatment, put it, “I watched your races and thought you looked great, just like a pink ribbon on the water. Now I can’t wait to get back home and start working on setting up a survivor team. If you can do it, I can too!”
The Robusters’ paddling season for 2012 is winding down but team members would like to invite any interested women, survivors or not, to consider paddling with us next year.
To anyone else who would like to support the team (and the oncology unit of the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital), please buy a copy of the beautiful 2013 Kootenay Calendar, available at stores throughout the Kootenays.
This year's Kaiser Permanente International Dragon Boat Festival took place between Sept. 15 and 16.
– Submitted by Jan Micklethwaite