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Global Paddling

We always say that you should be able to go anywhere in the world and hop into a dragon boat and paddle. This lovely letter came to our team in Christchurch after we had the fabulous Celine on board with us from the Plurabelle Paddlers, Ireland.Hi Ladies,Greetings from the Emerald Isle.I arrived back in Dublin, Ireland, last Sunday 19th March, and am about over the jetlag by now !I would like to thank you all for your very warm welcome you afforded me when I paddled with you recently in Christch...

IBCPC - Missabittatitti Australia

Reflections of a first-time competitor. Wrangling 113 participants. Missabittatitti (MBT) from Australia did just that.Submitted by Sally BallIBCPC 2023. What can I say but WOW!18 months ago, I attended my first come and try session with Dragons Abreast Brisbane – Team Missabittatitti. After one session I was hooked – not only to the paddling but being surrounded by others who had also been through a breast cancer diagnosis. With IBCPC only 18 months away, plans were already in full swing fo...

Irish Teams

From Marion Egan, IBCPC National Representative for Ireland.The Irish teams have had a very busy start to our training and racing season. Regatta season is underway with our first Irish regatta taking place in Athy in April.In May, three teams from Ireland travelled to the 4th Barcelona International Dragon Boat festival. Lagan Dragons, Plurabelle Paddlers and Suir Dragons competed in 200m and 500m races in both BCS and open categories. Apart from a weekend of tough racing, the event provided an...

Numbers, Numbers, and More Numbers

Submitted by Meri GibsonI am fascinated by statistics and whilst they can be very subjective based on the information that you receive, they do help to give you guiding principles by which to work and in our case, they are what we have used to look at how we grow this organisation globally via establishing more breast-cancer teams in every corner of the world.I have often used the New Zealand numbers as a benchmark for what is possible, we were early adopters of breast cancer dragon boat paddlin...

Pink Phoenix Celebration of Life

Submitted by Sioux Kriss, President, Pink Phoenix Dragons.I asked Meri Gibson for permission a few weeks ago to read the Dragon Flowers poem by Berni Veale at the Pink Phoenix Celebration of Life, and Meri asked that I send a picture in return.Attached you will see several pictures. Since our team is now 27 years old, we have.a long list of Pink Angels - 55 as April 12. (Yes, our last paddler passed at home with her family while we were in New Zealand.)Our Celebration of Life ceremony is an annu...

Vienna Pink Dragons at Lake Karapiro

Summary of the participation of the Vienna Pink Dragons International team at Lake Karapiro, New Zealand 2023Submitted by Svenja Franke-BruhnJust over a month ago, the IBCPC Festival in New Zealand came to an end.It was an honor and pure pleasure for Helen as Team Manager and me (Svenja) as Team Captain to accompany the Vienna Pink Dragons International Team to this international festival for the second time.Many of the participants took advantage of the long journey to travel to New Zealand and...

Calendar - International Dragon Boat Events

All the information on the upcoming IDBF Club Crew World Championships (CCWC) and World Dragon Boat Racing Championships (WDBRC).Upcoming16th World Dragon Boat Racing Championships Pattaya, Thailand7-13 August 202319th EDBF ECCC 2023,Ravenna, ItalySeptember 7 - September 10, 202314th Club Crew World Championships Ravenna, Italy5-8 September 202417th World Dragon Boat Racing Championships Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany16-20 July 2025During our visit to Spain in 2022 we had lengthy discussions ...

Chile is painting itself pink...

Submitted by Paula FariasWe are already 12 teams of Pink Paddlers in Chile, who yearn to achieve our rehabilitation practicing the sport of paddling in Dragon Boat, a visionary dream of our founder Monica Hernandez who upon hearing in 2017 in Brazil, Dr. Don McKenzie talk about the benefits that the practice of this sport had on women survivors of breast cancer and she wanted to establish it in our country.At the beginning it was not easy, for several reasons: the sport of Dragon Boat was not kn...

Empirical Data & Research Study

A study into the impacts of dragon boat paddling on breast cancer survivors.Submitted by Svenja Franke Bruhn on behalf of Pink-Gelb-Neckardrachen, GermanyEditor: It is super interesting to note that the control group of paddlers was from IBCPC member team Pink-Gelb-Neckardrachen and the impacts of the study support everything we say, “Exercise is Medicine”.Christine Tetzlaff, the heart and soul behind the pink lady’s team in Tübingen, the so called Pink-Gelb-Neckardrachen is very active i...

From the desk of the President

From the Desk of Meri Gibson, IBCPC Global President.When you are reading this newsletter, it will be just over five weeks until everybody is in New Zealand for the IBCPC Participatory Festival. To say that the excitement and energy is palpable would be an understatement. We are certainly in full activity mode as we build towards the last few weeks. There is still much to be done and all the last-minute activities that we are pulling together are certainly keeping us all on our toes.It’s been ...

International Women's Day Event

Submitted by Orit Ziv Ackerman, the founder and manager of “Pink Lionesses, Israel”.It is the online screening of “Paddling for Life”- a documentary film that was made about our group here in Israel.The screening will be followed with an online discussion (in English) on what it means to be a “Pink Lionesses” and what paddling on dragon boats does to our wellbeing.Attached you’ll find an invitation and clear instructions on how to register (very important) in order to connect and v...

Italy - Aquile Rosa Lilt Palermo

Inauguration and Launching of the new dragon boat of Aquile Rosa Lilt PalermoJust a few weeks ago, on February the 18th, in collaboration with the Yacht Club del Mediterraneo and with the OACCUs program (Outside Against the Cancer Connects Us), the Aquile Rosa Lilt Palermo team inaugurated its boat!The launching of our new dragon boat took place in our wonderful city, Palermo in Sicily. Achieving this goal was a big dream for us and, even now, we can hardly believe it.Our team was born almost si...

Launch Event for We Workingwomen (Ottawa branch)

December 2, 2022The article below is an excerpt of an introduction to Beirong as the guest speaker at the launch of the We Workingwomen.Submitted by Beirong XiongNational Representative to China and founder of Toronto-Beijing Dragon Sisters.Beirong Xiong is a multiple winning world medalist of Canada’s senior B women’s dragon boat team, a motivator and sport advocate, the initiator of China’s Dragon Sisters breast cancer dragon boat teams, and the first person to bring breast cancer dragon...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Submitted by Marion EganHigh up in the Alps in late January 2023, the 3rd Snow Dragon Boat Festival 2023 which took place in at the Biathlon Stadium in Le Grand Bornand. There were over 200 paddlers who took part in this participatory event and who travelled from all over Europe.The event itself involved one day of racing on snow. Teams consisted of 8 paddlers and 1 drummer and helm. From Ireland, 23 paddlers and supporters travelled from Medb Dragon Warriors from Sligo, Nore Dragon Paddlers - K...

News from Chile

Submitted by Paula FariasIn December 2022 the Chilean Canoeing Federation organized the second Nautical Festival in Villarrica, a city in the south of Chile located at the foot of the Villarrica volcano and with a huge lake. This national Festival counted with the participation of different nautical modalities, among them us, the BCS category with three Dragon Boats for 12 people each.As soon as we received the call for this Festival, the teams began to work intensely to be able to participate, ...

News from Ireland

Thank you to Deborah Bonner, IrelandSubmitted by Meri GibsonIt is with much gratitude that we say a massive thank you to Deborah Bonner who has been our fantastic National Representative to Ireland since July 2017. As soon as I met Deborah in Divonne les Bains, France in 2017 I knew she was the right person for the role. She has done a fabulous job of keeping the Irish BCS teams connected and in promoting dragon boating to one and all. Many of you will have seen the lovely photo of herself and h...

Poetry in Motion

Submitted by Betty Solley in recognition of her teammate Jill MuhrerOne of my teammates, Jill Muhrer has had her poem describing paddling with Against the Wind published in the spring issue of Modern Haiku magazine. I love this beautiful poem.CADENCEDarkness settles quickly on the river, erasing the horizon. Life vests creating a rainbow, our team of 22 rushes to the dock carrying our dragon boat paddles.Breast cancer, the one subject we rarely discuss, unites us. Tonight, we focus on balancing ...

Re-introducing Cleusa Alonso as National Representative for Brazil

I'm Cleusa Alonso, Brazilian living in Argentina, retired teacher, married, mother of two wonderful children. I am determined, dedicated, supportive and very cheerful.In November 2011 I was diagnosed with breast cancer and in November 2020 with parotid cancer.After the hardships, I joined a small group of women who are also cancer survivors, and together we formed the first pink dragon boat team in South America in 2013.The contact with those women and belonging to a group helped me a lot emotio...

Welcome to Marion Egan

We extend a warm and hearty welcome to Marion as the new IBCPC National Representative to Ireland.Bio of Marion EganMarion was born and raised in Dublin, where she now lives and is married to Alan. They have 3 children, Sean, Heather and Aaron and life is very busy, but fun.Marion was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer in 2013 and joined Ireland’s first dragon boat club, Plurabelle Paddlers in 2016 where she found a love for exercise, sport and competition that she never knew she had. Fo...

Worldwide Exchange

Submitted by Matilde Yahni, National Representative, ArgentinaThe world is small when it comes to pink sisterhood. Thanks to networks provided by IBCPC, the ethos that “Exercise is Medicine” and “you should be able to join a boat and paddle anywhere in the world” came true!!!!Lucia, an Italian pink paddler from the Roman team PAGAIE ROSA, was visiting an Italian friend who lives Buenos Aires. She contacted the local team and two days later she was on our dragon boat paddling with us, Ros...

1st International Brazilian Dragon Boat Festival

Breast Cancer Survivors – Brasília – Brazil!!Submitted by Maria Alice Selicani PerfettoParanoá Lake – DF – Brasília – Brazil, was dressed in pink! Pink was blended with the water and in the premises of Associação dos Servidores da Câmara dos Deputados (ASCADE) club – during the 1st International Brazilian Dragon Boat Festival – BCS (Breast cancer survivors) that took place from October 26th to 29th, 2022.The event was oorganized by Cleusa Alonso –Remadoras Rosa do Brasil, a...

2023 World Dragon Boat Cup

Submitted by Meri GibsonIt was after much consultation and with some regret that the IDBF Council agreed to move the World Dragon Boat Racing Championship from Hong Kong to Pattaya, Thailand in 2023. Final date to be confirmed. Please keep an eye out on the IDBF website if this is interest to your country to attend.Racing will be for national representative teams only, not club crews. We know that many of our breast cancer survivor paddlers who have chosen to become competitive paddlers will be ...

4th National Rosas Gathering, Argentina

Submitted by Matilde YahniThe fourth gathering of the Argentinian pink paddlers took place in San Ignacio, Misiones, located in northeast Argentina. San Ignacio is a small city nestled in the forest 240 km away from the world famous Iguazú Falls.Fundación Azaleas del Parana organized the event, hosted 250 pink paddlers from all over Argentina, and made us feel as like very special guests. On the first day we paddled in kayaks on the Parana River (having a dragon boat is a dream to fulfil). Sev...

A Silver Rose Among the Roses of the Sea, Argentina

Submitted by Laura Griselda GarciaMy name is Laura Griselda Garcia and I´ve been a member of Rosas del Plata since 2019. But this story is not about my team …400 km away from Buenos Aires live the Rosas del Mar (Roses of the Sea). This group of resilient women who have gone through breast cancer decided some time ago to get closer and dare to paddle in a Dragon Boat.But at first, they paddled in other types of boats…, the Dragon Boat was waiting. It is not common or easy in Argentina to be ...

Croatia - Country Liaison

Introducing out new representative for CroatiaSubmitted by Buba BabichI am a 67-year young retiree who, since 2010 has been passionately committed to the sport of dragon boating! In 1994, my family and I arrived in Canada as refugees from Bosnia to start a happy, safe, and prosperous new life!My first BC diagnosis was in 2008, and after two lumpectomy surgeries and radiation in 2009, I joined Breast Friends Dragon Boat Racing Team Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) in 2010. My life changed after that, a...