Phillipa Buchanan began dragon-boating one year ago and has become hooked.
Now, she is looking to start a breast cancer survivors’ team in Dunedin to join the breast cancer division that runs as part of the sport.
She had garnered about five expressions of interest from breast cancer survivors so far.
‘‘If we can get 10, I’ll be super excited, and we can run a small boat — if we get 20, I’ll probably be dancing in the streets.’’
Mrs Buchanan was hoping to have a team before October when the season officially started.
If Dunedin had a breast cancer dragon boat team, it would be the most southern team of its kind in the world.
Mrs Buchanan had come up with the team name ‘‘Southern Swell’’.
‘‘Everybody has a different story on the boat, everyone’s in different stages.
‘‘Some people are not necessarily in remission, but it’s about living — it was about 10 years ago for me, and my health’s really good.
‘‘I feel very fortunate.’’
The breast cancer division started thanks to a Canadian doctor named Dr Don McKenzie back in the 1990s.
Mrs Buchanan said back then, the prevailing thought was that exercise might not be very good for women with potential lymphedema — damage to the lymphatic system that could arise following breast cancer treatment which affected up to 40% of patients.
‘‘The thought of the day was not to do too much ... and this doctor thought ‘no, I don’t agree with that’.’’
He ran a study with 24 breast cancer patients who had already had surgery to treat the cancer, and had them take up dragon boat racing for three months.
Their team name was Abreast in a Boat.
At the end of three months, none of them had lymphedema.
‘‘All of them felt healthier, happier, better, and it just took off from there.’’
Dunedin’s dragon boat club, Paddling Ōtepoti Incorporated, was having an open day on May 24, and Mrs Buchanan encouraged anyone interested in joining the team to come along.
‘‘Nobody knows what’s around the corner, so you’ve just got to get out there and do things.’’
