Palm Beach Florida Weekly

Paddling against breast cancer




The Lighthouse Dragon Boat team are one of 12 Florida teams registered with the International Breast Cancer Paddlers’ Commission. COURTESY PHOTOTHE

The Lighthouse Dragon Boat team are one of 12 Florida teams registered with the International Breast Cancer Paddlers’ Commission. COURTESY PHOTO

On rivers and lakes all over the U.S., Chinese-inspired dragon boat crews are in training. Teams of 20 or so paddlers (it varies) are dipping their blades into the water in unison while a drummer in the front of the boat keeps the rhythm and another person steers the boat from the rear.

Many of the paddlers, including the local Lighthouse Dragon Boat team, wear pink shirts or have pink ribbons painted on their paddles to announce the team is made up of breast cancer survivors.

In Florida, there are 12 teams officially registered with the International Breast Cancer Paddlers’ Commission (Yup, there is one.) Internationally, there are 229 member teams from 26 countries, including 56 teams in the U.S., but a small portion of dragon boat paddlers worldwide.

The IBCPC promotes recreational dragon boat paddling as a component of a healthy lifestyle. Breast cancer patients got involved with the canoe-like sport when Dr. Don McKenzie, a sports medicine physician at the University of British Columbia, wondered if the paddling motions might reduce the number of cases of post-surgical lymphedema, a painful swelling of the arm caused by a backup of lymphatic fluid that’s an adverse effect of breast cancer surgery. The prevailing opinion was that no exercise should be done post-surgically, and doctors believed activity would increase the possibility of developing lymphedema.

Lighthouse Dragon Boat team paddlers wear pink shirts and ribbons or have pink paddles to announce the team is made up of breast cancer survivors.

Lighthouse Dragon Boat team paddlers wear pink shirts and ribbons or have pink paddles to announce the team is made up of breast cancer survivors.

In 1996, Dr. McKenzie recruited 24 breast cancer patients to join a dragon boat crew to prove he was right, and he was. Exercise did help with lymphedema. But more than that, his dragon group crew had produced a support system, new friendships, a sisterhood of survivors for comfort and a joy from learning something new.

“It filled a void for me,” said Betsy Burden of Jupiter. A 13-year breast cancer survivor and a busy environmental lawyer, Ms. Burden joined the team about three years ago. She was always athletic and outdoorsy. “I paddle-boarded and kayaked so this was right up my alley, but it was so much more than I expected. It has changed lives.”

COURTESY PHOTOS

COURTESY PHOTOS

Joining the team for practice and getting out on the water once in a while is enough for some women, but others, like Ms. Burden, chose to take it a step further and compete in one of the dozen or so dragon boat races held in Florida each year. The team competes in about half of those. But in July 2018, the Lighthouse Dragons were one of 121 teams from 18 countries competing at the IBCPC Dragon Boat Festival in Florence, Italy. The team is making plans to attend the 2022 Dragon Boat Festival, this one in New Zealand.

Debbie Brooks, the founder of Lighthouse Dragon Boat Team, brought her love of dragon boating up from Miami, where she’d been a member of the Save Our Sisters Miami team for eight years. In 2015, Ms. Brooks founded Save Our Sisters Palm Beach County and recruited her Miami teammates to deliver the PBC team their first boat, “Big Pink.” Team SOS PBC finally got its feet (and hull) wet.

 

Now called the Lighthouse Dragon Boat Team, the team website says they chose that name because “like a lighthouse, we are beacons of hope for all those whose lives have been touched by breast cancer.” They named their boat Ned, an acronym for every cancer patients’ favorite words: No Evidence of Disease.

Still, all is not well for the Lighthouse Dragons. The team used to launch its boats from the former Jupiter Outdoor Center site, until construction on the Love Street marketplace forced them out. Then they had an 18-month lease with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for a small piece of property and a permit to launch from the Jupiter Lighthouse property, but that permit expires in January, and because of improvements beginning there to combat erosion along the living shoreline, it can’t be renewed. Both sites would have kept the team onsite if they could, Ms. Burden said, but now the pink-clad team members are scrambling to find a site.

The team practices each Monday and Wednesday evening and on Saturday mornings. They need a place with land where they can keep the boats on their trailers and with beach access or a low-floating dock where they can launch them. The boats are big: 30 and 42 feet long. The team would love to stay in Jupiter in the shadow of their symbol, but will consider other options.

Ms. Burden said the team isn’t worried. She echoes the IBCPC’s mantra: “Together we are stronger, our voices are louder, and our message is clearer.”

— New team members are always welcome. No paddling experience is necessary. For more information, visit www.lighthousedragons.org or email Betsy Burden at lighthousedragons@gmail.com.

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