Life Connected

Life Connected: Breast Cancer Survivors Find Connection With Dragon Boat Racing

A group of breast cancer survivors in Newport has found a connection with dragon boat racing, as they feel unity and rhythm joining together.

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It is said that an ancient and well loved Chinese poet threw himself into a river thousands of years ago.

Saddened villagers searched for him using boats splashing the water with their paddles to keep the evil spirits from his body.

There are competitors that recreate that historic moment as they race to the finish line in what is now known as the dragon races.

"There’s just a subtle difference in way you feel when you’re all doing the same thing at same time in rhythm," said Kathryn Thompson a breast cancer survivor.

This team is based at the Newport Aquatic Center both men and women joining together in the spirit of the sport. But some are here for a specific reason, they are breast cancer survivors.

"My oncologist told me five years ago I was cancer free," said Donna St. Jean Conti, a breast cancer survivor. "

St. Jean Conti remembers the devastating diagnosis 22 years ago. Doctors told her at that time not to use her arms, to exercise, or to pick up her children.

"Doctors were still telling people, telling breast cancer patients who’ve had a node dissections not to lift anything over five pounds," St. Jean Conti said. "I was devastated again because of my young kids."

By 1996 Canadian doctors were challenging that sedentary myth and pushed women to paddle out. The women learned that the repetitive exercise helped them in recovery.

The wooden boats are 40-feet-long and hold up to 20 paddlers.

There are dragon boat teams around the world. There was even a dragon boat demonstration race at the Tokyo Olympics.

The connection to cancer survivors is marked after each race in a flower ceremony to honor those who are alive and those no longer alive as well.

The Newport group recently lost two teammates.

"There’s something special going on here so when you lose somebody you’ve talked with and traveled with and get that synchronicity that I described in the boat it’s a profound loss," Thompson said.

The women say they've each been through their own personal battle which is why many of them pay it forward by speaking to other cancer support groups to bring them a sense of hope.

"Now when I go back and I can share how much fun this is and how strong I feel and the camaraderie," Thompson said. "I feel like I can offer something to them that’s going to enhance their life moving forward."

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