Our Mission:
- To improve the physical and psychological well being of people who have had breast cancer
- To provide support to people whose breast cancer has recurred
- To support breast cancer research and encourage the pursuit of a cure
- To raise awareness of breast cancer in our region
We’re a group of breast cancer survivors and supporters who believe that staying strong physically and mentally benefits ourselves and our community.
As part of our mission to raise awareness, we take part in a number of events around Prince George such as Relay for Life and Run for the Cure. We also do presentations on breast cancer and dragon boating and participate in various wellness and health information activities.
Who can join?
We welcome adults at all fitness levels.
Practice times and location:
- Over the winter we do dryland training at the YMCA.
- In March and April we practice indoors at a community pool.
- Sunday practices begin sometime in May and Wednesday evening practices are added toward the end of June. All practices are held at West Lake, just outside of Prince George.
To find out more detailed information about our practices, please email us at [email protected].
Festivals:
We participate in one dragon boat festival a year. Throughout the year, we hold bake sales and other fundraisers to raise money for festival costs.
Fees:
We have a yearly membership fee of $50.00. We fundraise to keep the fees as low as possible.
Our story
“Joie de Vivre”
“The Joy of Living”
This is the name of our Dynasty Prototype dragon boat. It sums up why the team formed, why we are here and where we want to go.
We came together with a mission to:
- Provide support to breast cancer survivors
- Increase awareness about breast cancer in a positive way
- To be a sign that life doesn’t end with a breast cancer diagnosis
The team was formed in the fall of 1999 by Dr. Linda Wilson. She called the first meeting to determine the interest level in the concept of a northern breast cancer survivors dragon boat team.
In 2002, with support from generous donors, we purchased our own dragon boat. In honour of our sponsor it carries the inscription “MS.RRSP,” and our motto “Joie de Vivre.” The official boat launch was in June 2003.
The goal was to start and mark the millennium with our novice races in the Victoria and Kelowna dragon boat festivals. Our objective? To cross the finish line all in one boat. We made it!
History of breast cancer survivor dragon boat teams
Breast cancer survivors’ dragon boating is an international movement inspired by the research of Canadian sports medicine specialist Don McKenzie. Survivors of breast cancer join together to paddle dragon boats for the benefit of their physical health and social wellbeing. McKenzie is a Canadian sports medicine specialist at the University of British Columbia, professor in the School of Kinesiology and Director of the Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Centre.
In a 1998 paper in the Canadian Medical Association Journal McKenzie described how in February 1996 he started a dragon boat team for women with a history of breast cancer, which the women chose to name Abreast in a Boat. He believed that this activity would benefit breast cancer survivors as it provided strenuous upper body activity in an aesthetically pleasing and socially supportive environment.
There are now breast cancer survivor dragon boat teams worldwide.
(This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Breast cancer survivors’ dragon boating”, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.)