Rainbow Dragons Abreast is five years old
October 8, 2009
You may have seen the women dressed in pink paddling in a dragon boat on beautiful Lake Ainsworth at Lennox Head on Sunday mornings.
They are survivors of breast cancer who, along with their supporters, put a human face to the breast cancer statistics. They remind us just how common this disease is, how many lives it affects. They also remind us that there is life after breast cancer and it is to be enjoyed.
Rainbow Dragons Abreast is now five years old. The inspiration for a local dragon boat team for breast cancer survivors in our region came from Barb Pinter of Byron Bay.
Following her diagnosis of breast cancer in 2001, Barb went to Brisbane for treatment and to be with her family.
There she met Missabitatitti, the Dragons Abreast team on the Brisbane River. In 2003, she met Prof. Don McKenzie, founder of the Canadian ‘Abreast in a Boat’ and Michelle Hanton, founder of Dragons Abreast Australia. Barb was fired up.
On November 14, 2004, the first meeting of the fledgling group took place in Bangalow and a very enthusiastic, hard-working group was formed to start the process of setting up a club, and most importantly acquiring a dragon boat to paddle.
Meetings were frequent, as was ‘training’ at the swimming pool.
“In June 2005 we acquired our first boat, a heavy old clunker leased from Dragon Boats NSW,” a spokeswoman said.
“Some fibreglass patching made it ‘lake worthy’ and we were able to start learning how to do it!
“We were on our way and many people and organisations were there to help us. John Mills at the Department of Sport and Recreation embraced our cause and made space for our boat and equipment, giving us a safe, tranquil place to train.
“Lennox Head Lions Club, all six of them, took up the quest for our own boat and presented our case to their regional meeting and secured the money.
“In June, 2006 our beautiful new boat was delivered and was launched with great ceremony at the lake on the 17th September.
“QUOTA Alstonville/Wollongbar, Winter Whales of Byron Bay, and CURVES Ballina/Lismore and many, many individuals and organisations throughout our Rainbow Region have helped bring our dream to fruition and we thank them all. We also thank the councils of Lismore, Ballina, and Byron Bay for their support.”
The group is having a ‘Pink’ dinner party on October 10 to mark their fifth anniversary. For more information contact Patsy Brosnan at brosnanpat@hotmail.com or phone 6685 4332.
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