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Highlights of 2005
Participation by AIAB crews at these FESTIVALS in 2005
Participation by AIAB at these EVENTS in 2005
The IDBF (International Dragon Boat Federation) invited, for the first time, all breast cancer teams around the world to debut breast cancer dragonboating at the 2003 World Championships in Shanghai, China. However, due to SARS, the venue was changed to Poland. Abreast In A Boat was the only visiting breast cancer team in attendance, and was joined by a newly formed Polish breast cancer team. Our crew represented Canada in the Senior Women's B Category to demonstrate to other people living with breast cancer that they can lead full and active lives.
October: CIBC Run for the Cure. Abreast In A Boat won the Air Canada Trophy for the highest amount raised in the Community Team category for the third consecutive year.
On Saturday, May 25th Abreast In the Cove and Abreast In Barnet attended the 5th annual Lotus Dragonboat Regatta. This year the regatta was hosted and well organized by the club's 2002 Juniors. A fun filled day was had by all. With great people, good food and calm water (and the rain held off)...what more could we ask for? Our novices from both crews had a fabulous first experience and with each of the four races grew more and more confident. The day ended with a jubilant Abreast In Barnet, in their home water, winning the Women's Division Trophy.
Read about Lorraine Krakow's impressions in Our Stories.
Attended by breast cancer dragon boat teams from Portland (OR), the Kootenays, Victoria, Central Vancouver Island. There were 10 boats in the Abreast In A Boat breast cancer race.
Attended by 5 of our members who paddled with a group of women from several teams including Australia. They called themselves "Internationally Abreast".
Attended by breast cancer dragon boat teams from New Zealand, Portland (OR), Victoria, Central Vancouver Island, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Brandon, Montreal. Two women from the Australian team participated as well. There were 11 boats in the Abreast In A Boat Breast Cancer Race.
2006
Reader's Digest, January, 2006 - "Original" honoured by Reader's Digest
Mike WakefieldIn its January 2006 issue the Reader’s Digest named our own Esther Matsubuchi as one of the magazines six heroes of 2005— a very august group which includes Canadian Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire.
The article relates Esther’s experience first as a breast cancer survivor and then as a member of the original breast cancer dragon boat team of 1996 initiated by Dr. Don McKenzie. The growth of the Abreast In A Boat Society since then into a world wide movement is described as well as the on-going research which continues to illustrate the benefits of upper-body exercise without concern for the development of lymphadema.
Esther’s story has received wide publicity in other media including extensive television and radio coverage, articles in a number of Lower Mainland newspapers as well as an editorial in the Vancouver Sun.
Congratulations, Esther. All the members of Abreast In A Boat are very proud of you and thank you for bringing so much attention to our cause of breast cancer awareness !
( Click the above link)
Ten Years Abreast Celebration, June 24-26, 2005.
The following is a list of Media Coverage for the Ten Years Abreast Celebration Dragonboat Festival.
Leanne Jacobsen, our Communications Chair for 2004-2005, together with Kathie and Angela from our sponsor, Contemporary Communications, did a magnificant job in organising this incredible list of media events.
2002
Delta Optimist, May 21st, 2002Survivors in the same boat: Woman who have overcome breast cancer will be in Deas Island Regatta
by Jessica HolmesSurviving breast cancer means more than just staying alive for three South Delta dragon boat paddlers. Joanna Hutton, Leslie Ross and Kandi Caplan say their involvement in the False Creek Breast in a Boat team has helped them fully appreciate life. "The gals on the boat have a real zest for living," says Hutton, the team coach. "It just goes to show women living with breast cancer can lead full and active lives." Their team of 18 women living with breast cancer - ranging in age from 30 to 73 - will be one of the 36 teams competing in the women's-only Deas Island Regatta next weekend.
The three women went to high school together in Vancouver and decided to join the dragon boat team together last spring. All having survived traumatic operations, chemotherapy and radiation, the three felt they would be with others "in the same boat" - pun intended - with the sport. "Everybody in the boat knows where you're coming from," Hutton says. "We don't talk about it unless somebody has a reoccurrence." "We mostly talk about where we're going after practice," laughs Caplan, the team stroke leader. "It's a real fun bunch."
Hutton, 58, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in early 2000 after noticing a lump in her breast tissue. "My first reaction was, 'I'm too busy for this,'" says the former school teacher. She had to undergo the partial removal of her lymph nodes and a mastectomy, both within the same month. She lost most of her hair and had to deal with weakness and fatigue through four months of chemotherapy. For Hutton, dragon boat racing added an extra support to her tight network of family and friends. "The boat offers that extra camaraderie," she says.
Ross, 54, discovered she had a lump at a doctor's appointment in the spring of 2000. "I was in total shock," says the team's captain. "I kept thinking they were talking about somebody else." She credits her doctor, Ladner's Dr. Jean Segal, for holding her family together through the lumpectomy and eight weeks of radiation. "I was tired, but I just got on with my life," she says.
Caplan, 53, has had to go through two breast cancer scares in her life. First, at age 36, she had a mastectomy with no treatment. Then, 14 years later, she found another lump while she was showering. "The second time was unbelievable," she says. "I thought I'd already had my turn." Caplan then had to undergo another mastectomy and four months of chemotherapy. Now, the women are on a regular fitness program and practice twice a week in False Creek. They say strength and safety are the team's main concerns with the 500 metre races, but the jokes and back-seat driving make up most the fun of being on the crew. "And," notes Ross, "at the end of the season, your arms look really good in a sleeveless shirt."
The Deas Island Regatta will take place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 26. Parking will be at a premium so organizers are asking that people car pool or ride bicycles to the event.
2001
Abreast In A Boat founder to be honoured.Story published in the Richmond Review October 11, 2001
A local doctor who developed a physical training program for breast cancer survivors will be honoured Friday at Rideau Hall in Ottawa for his work. Dr. Donald Chisholm McKenzie, a University of B.C. sports medicine physician and exercise physiologist, will receive the Meritorious Service Medal for helping initiate and develop the program that has benefited hundreds of breast cancer survivors across the world.
Back in 1996, McKenzie formed and coached the Abreast In A Boat dragon boat paddling team consisting of women who have survived breast cancer. The program demonstrated the benefits of upper body exercise to breast cancer survivors. As much as the fitness regimen may provide physical benefits, the emotional rewards are even greater, McKenzie said. "This isn't about breast cancer. This is about health, fitness and the rest of your life." His initiative resulted in most provinces across Canada fielding a breast cancer dragon boat team, along with many other teams in the United States, Australia and other parts of the world.
As much as he is honoured to receive the award, McKenzie said the credit should also go to the people who have made the program such an international success. "I started it, but I'm a small spoke in the wheel. It's really gone way beyond me. I'm accepting (the award) on behalf of all the women who have put all of their time volunteering into this program."
McKenzie said he still regularly gets phone calls or e-mails from people all around the world who are interested in starting up a breast-cancer survivor team. "It's really gone beyond a small group of people in Vancouver." Thanks to the tremendous corporate sponsorship of the Abreast In A Boat Society, a team of survivors travelled to New Zealand. And next year, McKenzie said, they hope to send a team to Rome.
According to a statement from the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General, McKenzie's "remarkable achievements, enhanced by his guidance and caring, have given breast cancer survivors across Canada a sense of confidence and pride, and a lifeline to a better existence." The award recognizes "performance...of a deed or activity in an outstandingly professional manner or of an uncommonly high standard bringing great honour to Canada."
2000
Media EventsJean Konda-Witte, the press photographer who covered Sandra Morris' speech at the Abbotsford Breast Cancer Awareness Breakfast was so inspired by what she heard and saw she stayed beyond her required 15 minute photo-op and actually wrote a wonderful article. It appeared in the Abbotsford Times on April 17. She compared the inane games played in Survivor on so-called reality TV with "the courageous women... who gave true meaning to the word survivor, all there with their supporters." She concluded, "This was the real tribal council and nobody's getting voted out."
In the April 18 issue of the Vancouver Courier, our own Pat Sawada was featured in an article entitled: Five Years Free. To quote the article and Pat: For the second year running, Pat is an avid Abreast in a Boat dragon boater. "Joining the dragon boat team was my salvation. I so admire the women I paddle with. Today life is full. The whole experience has shown me just how fragile life can be. I now know that money's not important and working yourself to the point of stress is unhealthy. I really urge women of 40-plus to have a mammogram each year and if there is breast cancer in your family, have a mammogram earlier." Well done, Pat; a very positive and instructive message!
On April 25 the North Shore News featured a half page photo of Abreast in the Cove on the water. The caption gave our message and mentioned the growth of teams in the US, NZ and Australia.
Susan Harris was interviewed by CBC TV (Montreal) in early May when in Quebec City to attend the Reasons for Hope Breast Cancer Conference.
On June 4 the Vancouver Sun had an article in their Healthy Life section, with photos of Abreast for the Cure in our new dragon boat, and an excellent interview with Shelley Kirk.
June 2000, the community paper, Deep Cove Crier featured an article and photo "Deep Cove Gets Its Own: Abreast in the Cove is our new local rowing team."
