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Dragon Boat Training Ruegen Germany

Ruegen/Germany, September 30 through October 02, 2023Submitted by Itti from Pink Patrol Bochum and Bianca from Pink Paddler DuerenOctober means PinktoberSo again, 55 paddlers from various German cities (Bochum, Datteln, Dueren, Hamburg, Hameln, Kassel, Luenen, Witten, and Wolfsburg) met in Dranske on the German island of Ruegen in the Baltic Sea for a training weekend. It was not only to raise awareness about breast cancer but to continue fighting against this disease in a sporting and entertain...

France 2026

Registration InformationLac du BourgetAix-les-BainsAugust 24-30, 2026Website: http://www.ibcpcfrance2026.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ibcpcfrance2026Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ibcpcfrance2026Who can participate?This event is only open to Breast Cancer Survivors. Prior to the event, you will require a form from your doctor stating that you have had breast cancer. Previvors, eg. those with genetic predisposition to breast cancer but who have not had breast cancer...

Brasil Remama

Submitted by Ivanir FerreiraJournalist and volunteer for the Remama Program(English translation follows below)Outubro Rosa brasileiro: evento comemorou 10 anos de atividade e apresentou pesquisas inéditas sobre a importância do exercício físico durante e após o tratamento do câncer de mama.Em outubro, o Programa Remama -SP/Brasil comemorou em alto estilo seus dez anos de atividade, de promoção à vida, conscientização, prevenção e diagnóstico precoce do câncer de mama. Nos dias 06 ...

Dragonesse Avigliana

Submitted by Paola Zaccagni“It always seems impossible until it is realized”. This has been our motto during these months of non-stopping work to prepare for our Tenth Anniversary.Finally, our dream took place on October 6th, 7th and 8th, 2023. “The Dragonesse Avigliana” gave life to a fantastic pink party to celebrate their tenth anniversary.Many friends came from everywhere in Italy. People from Sardegna, Lazio, Veneto, and Lombardia regions, joined us to celebrate.Many people who beli...

EDBF European Championships 2023

Report from GermanySome news from Germany about the 19th ECCC in Ravenna, Italy. Two German teams met to compete with teams from all over Europe in the European Club Crew Championships in September. The Küsten Pinkies from Wilhelmshaven chose to charter a bus and drive South for about 20 hours including an unforeseen stopover in Ulm to have their bus fixed. This method of transportation made it possible to not only bring everyones´ paddles, but also the film crew who accompanied the team on it...

Dragonheart Vermont Sisters

Submitted by Linda Dyer, Dragonheart Vermont Sisterslindadyer@rocketmail.comThe Dragonheart Vermont Sisters hail from the Northeastern United States. It is a beautiful land of green mountains and deciduous trees that put on a colorful show each fall. People have taken notice of the Sisters’ affinity toward sunflowers. We confess. The Dragonheart VT Sisters LOVE sunflowers!!It all began very organically years ago. Our Dragonheart Vermont club annually hosts the Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festiv...

DA Melbourne Pink Phoenix

We were thrilled to initiate and conduct Australia’s first-ever Breast Cancer Network Australia PLAY4BCNA Dragons Abreast Pink Sports Day fundraiser on Sat. Sep. 23, 2023. https://pinksportsday.bcna.org.auOur sister clubs DA Gippsland, DA Geelong and DA Bendigo also joined us that weekend to raise funds to support the work of the fantastic BCNA, Australia’s leading breast cancer consumer organisation, working tirelessly to ensure that all Australians who are affected by breast cancer receive...

Colombia 5th Anniversary

The Breast Cancer Survivors Dragon Boat Colombia Foundation celebrated its 5th anniversary on October 7th, 2023, under its motto: "Paddling for life, together, in the same direction" (¨Remando juntos por la vida, en la misma direccion¨).This event celebrated the lives of the women who, over the past five years, have preserved and advanced the legacy of its founder and eternal captain, the late Catalina Palacio Livingston. It was also a tribute to her memory and to her bold vision: to make a ho...

Dragons of Hope, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Submitted by Mary-Jean CormierFor Thunder Bay's Dragons of Hope, 'hope' truly is the key. As breast cancer survivor dragon boat teams, we all live in 'hope' that we will live another day, week, month or year, and of course, paddle another race. But in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, it's definitely a good thing that ‘hope’ seems to spring eternal.To start the Dragons of Hope season, the team has to 'hope' for an early thaw so they can start training by the end of May. They 'hope' each winter t...

From the Desk of the President

Submitted by Meri GibsonWOW, what a few months it has been since we put out our last newsletter. So much has happened that we want to bring you up to speed. You will see in this newsletter, which is now edited by Louise Granahan, our communications director, that there are over 30 articles! It’s just brilliant to see teams so engaged in wanting to be a part of this newsletter and to share their stories.For me personally there has been a lot of travelling, a lot of helping to establish breast c...

AmaBelles, Cape Town, South Africa

Submitted by Eileen van HeldenIn the good old, bad old days of the sailing ships and the spice island trade between Europe and the lands around the Indian Ocean, Cape Town was known as “the Tavern of the Seas” because everyone making the long journey round the tip of Africa would stop here for some R&R.This year we have seen something like this happening when several members of our worldwide sisterhood of BCS paddlers have contacted our team when they knew they were going to visit Cape T...

Dragons Abreast Australia

25th AnniversaryDragons Abreast Australia has turned Breast Cancer Survivors into Breast Cancer thrivers for the past 25 years! The Australian network for Breast Cancer Survivor Dragon Boat paddling is going from strength to strength- just like its members. The power of positivity, optimism, adventure and tenacity are very evident when our groups from all over Australia come together to paddle alongside each other, racing against Breast Cancer.Over the weekend from Friday 29th September to Sunda...

From the Desk of the Editor

Submitted by Louise GranahanAs your new IBCPC Communications Director, one of my responsibilities is to edit the newsletter. With your help, I have collected some articles from around the world.It was amazing for me to read about team and personal successes and growth. Thanks for all of your ideas for things to bring to a regatta. I have compiled them into a handy list.By now you have heard the news about France 2026 in Aix-les-Bains! I have included information on registration and participation...

Dragons Abreast Canberra

Dragons Abreast Canberra has an annual event where they paddle from Grevilea Park where our boats are kept and where the new clubhouse for Dragon Boat ACT is currently under construction, to further down the lake, Lake Burley Griffin, to have a lovely wander through the flowers of Floriade. This annual event in Canberra wasn’t planted during Covid, so it’s great to see it back.I’m not able to paddle at the moment so I was able to meet up with everyone where they moored the boat so that I c...

What it is to be a Breast Cancer Dragon Boater

AnonPicture this: You're at a Dragon Boat competition, sizing up your opponents, and silently predicting your chances of victory. But during this intense atmosphere, there's a team that might catch you off guard. They're a group of women, ranging in age from 35 to 80, all pretty and dressed in a lot of pink, but not to be underestimated. Who are they? Well, they're the breast cancer dragon boat teams, and they're here to prove that they're forces to be reckoned with.At first glance, you might mi...

From Melissa Adams

From Melissa Adams, Coach: Phoenix Desert Dragons, Arizona, USA.For the first time in history, the 16th IDBF World Dragon Boat Racing Championships in Thailand included the Para dragon’s division. Para dragons include athletes with some form of physical, psychological, neurological, sensory, developmental, or intellectual impairment. Teams represented in this division were from Canada, India, Philippines, and the United States. To say that it was humbling would be an understatement, I was trul...

Anastasia Walsh’s Story

Written by Emma Russell, Multimedia Journalist, New Zealand Herald.Anastasia Walsh never expected to be looking death in the eye at age 23.Yet, three months after giving birth to her giggly daughter Esmae, the Martinborough mum was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer."We have been in and out of hospital more times than I care to remember. But I will not let it take life away from me," Walsh told the Herald on Sunday.Now 24, she shared her story as part of October's Breast Cancer Awareness Mon...

What Surviving Cancer Taught Me

Dr Liz O’Riordan: "I’m a breast cancer surgeon – this is what surviving cancer myself taught me" Daily Telegraph UKBy Rosamund DeanAs a breast surgeon, Dr Liz O’Riordan is well acquainted with worst-case scenarios. So, when she discovered a lump on her breast in 2010, her initial reaction was terror. “I remember howling on the sofa: ‘I’ll be dead in a year,’” she says. “I thought it was the end of the world.” To her relief, the lump was a benign cyst. In 2014, she noticed a...

From the Desk of the President

Meri Gibson, IBCPC Global President.As I write this letter the winter is coming to an end in the southern hemisphere and the summer is coming to an end in the northern hemisphere as we both head towards either spring or fall. The weather has been crazy wherever you are, extreme heat and extreme cold. Let’s hope it is more settled as we roll on into our respective seasons.I have just returned from the IDBF World Dragon Boat Racing Championships in Pattaya, Thailand what a fantastic adventure th...

Breast Friends Dragon Boat Racing Team Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

25 years ago, in November 1998, two women from the greater Edmonton area, gathered a group of breast cancer survivors together to see if there was enough interest to form a dragon boating team. The interest expressed was significant, so from this point, a volunteer executive was formed. This executive had the formidable task of determining the best path for the team, and began working immediately to create Breast Friends Society, an Alberta charitable organization, registered in February 1999. T...

KC Pink Warriors

KC Pink Warriors brought home the medal in the BCS Cup and was competitive in the Women’s division during the Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival!This marks a significant milestone for our team as it was our very first international festival. The city of Vancouver was gorgeous and the thrill of competing in Olympic Village against top-notch teams from around the world has left and indelible mark on our souls.The adventure didn’t stop on the race course, when we weren’t competing we made t...

News from Chemo Savvy, Canada

We had our first local Dragon Boat Festival of the season!We entered three boats of paddlers!We had an amazing presence at this festival!...

Updates from Europe

Go Europe Pink Dragons 1st edition or: Teamwork to make a (COVID) dream come true.Let´s go back in time… Don´t we all remember the year 2020 when many countries didn't allow meeting in person due to the pandemic? When people were restricted to staying at home? These times of lockdown were the beginning of a dream, and this dream has become reality 3 years later with a composite team of pink paddlers united from various European teams supported by some pink friends from Israel and the US.When...

DIA DEL NIÑO (Children’s Day)

Submitted by: Marta Lapaz, Rosas del PlataTigre , Buenos Aires , ArgentinaEvery year in the winter holidays, that is July for Argentina, we take boys and girls between 5 and 12 years old from the area where we paddle, for a ride in our dragon boat.They expect to see the big, majestic boat enter the bay with the Rosas girls in pink wearing crazy wigs or headbands. “Let's paddle to the beat of the drum” is the slogan.Some of the children come to the meeting in their little kayaks, then line up...

Updates from Latin and South America

Rosas Del PlataCELEBRATION IN PINKby Matilde Yahni, IBCPC National Representative to ArgentinaThe members of Rosa Del Plata don’t need an excuse to party. Our Argentine team of 55 paddlers love delicious food, good music, dancing, and any reason to bring the team together. A group of ladies on our team volunteered to form our “birthday celebration committee”, and they work hard to surprise our 55 BCS pink paddlers at every event with special guests and treats. They invite musicians: jazz s...