THUNDER BAY -- The Dragon Boat Festival at Boulevard Lake came to a halt and all eyes fell on the Dragons of Hope.
Paddling the boat with their team name proudly displayed, the breast cancer survivors raised pink and white carnations to represent those lost to the disease.
A sombre salute arose from their competitors along the lake's edge as they held up their own flowers in solidarity.
When the music stopped, they tossed the carnations in the water and celebrated perseverance together.
It has been 17 years since breast cancer survivors in British Columbia inspired Doris Rossi to start a dragon boat club among breast cancer survivors in Thunder Bay.
"It gives me so much pride to see it continuing over the years," Rossi said. "The spirit is there. I hope that I inspire hope in a lot of the newly-diagnosed women as I am a 23-year survivor. I was told I only had five years on this Earth and I'm still here 23 years later. Nobody wanted me up there -- or down there -- yet, I guess."
The nursing teacher was part of medical testing that showed paddling not only improves the physical health of women recovering from mastectomies but it also improves mental health of breast cancer survivors to be part of that kind of a community.
Nearly two decades after they took their first stroke, the Dragons of Hope have an average age of over 60 years old. The oldest paddler is 79.
"What I see is, the survivorship is better," Rossi said. "Women are surviving breast cancer for a longer period of time and some of them are beating it. I'm an example. you never heard of this as much before. Sometimes with the diagnosis came the fatality afterwards. That does still happen but I think women are surviving it much more now."
Nearly two decades after they took their first stroke, the Dragons of Hope have an average age of over 60 years old. The oldest paddler is 79.
"What I see is, the survivorship is better," Rossi said.
"Women are surviving breast cancer for a longer period of time and some of them are beating it. I'm an example. you never heard of this as much before. Sometimes with the diagnosis came the fatality afterwards. That does still happen but I think women are surviving it much more now."
At only 33 years old, Michelle Blackburn is one of the youngest paddlers. She's on the brink of marking five years cancer-free in October, a benchmark for most survivors. She's still going to be taking tamoxifen hormone therapy for another five years
"I started dragon boating just after I finished radiation," she recalled.
"I'd done chemo, I'd had a mastectomy and then I met these women and these women are amazing. Some of them have been survivors for more than 20 years. To be in this community, to meet these women, it gives someone like me hope for the future."
