Dragon boat crew's special:

Cancer survivors come together for workouts

By Julie Brossy July 26, 2008 Publication: San Diego Union-Tribune, The (CA)

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In their battles with cancer, they've been through surgeries, radiation, chemotherapy and more. Some are still under treatment, and they live with the possibility that the disease could recur.

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But you'd never guess that from the energy and enthusiasm that the women of Team Survivor bring to their weekly dragon-boat workout on Mission Bay.

At the words, "Paddle, set, go," crew members plunged their paddles into the bay on a recent Sunday. As they pulled back, the heavy dragon boat leapt forward and sliced through the flat gray water.

"More than anything, it's about the camaraderie," said Penny Navarro of La Mesa. "This puts you with people who have been in the same place you have been, and it's easy to work together when you have that commonality."

Navarro, 53, was one of 17 team members who gathered to paddle the traditional Chinese boat at the Youth Aquatic Center on Fiesta Island.

Navarro, who is cancer-free after treatment for an early-stage breast cancer in 2001, learned of the dragon-boat team through a woman in her quilting class and has been to four practices.

"It's a 10-mile drive, but at this point in my life, I'm looking to make that connection," said Navarro, an executive assistant in the University of San Diego's continuing education program.

The dragon-boat crew, which began forming in April, is one of scores of cancer-survivor boat teams in the United States, Canada and several other countries.

Most teams are made up of breast cancer survivors; some, such as San Diego's, also include people who have had other types of cancer. The San Diego team is hoping to recruit more members to add to its roster of 18.

The dragon-boat movement for cancer survivors came about after a Canadian doctor, Donald McKenzie, formed a breast cancer team in 1996 on the theory that paddling would help women strengthen their upper bodies, improve their range of motion, and stimulate the immune system, among other benefits.

At the time, it was common for doctors to order restrictions on breast cancer patients' activity in the belief that exercise might bring on lymphedema, a type of swelling that can be a side effect of both radiation and lymph-node removal in breast cancer treatments. No new cases of lymphedema occurred among those first team members.

Since then, studies have shown that exercise combined with diet can help prevent cancer recurrence, in addition to providing other benefits such as improved spirits and better overall health. Dragon-boating has the added advantage of allowing individuals to vary the intensity of their workouts.

"I come home from this and I feel great," said Nichole Melone, 41. "Even with all the working out I do, this uses a different muscle."

Members of the San Diego team range in age from 28 to 66, said Angie Bagnas, who helped organize the team through Team Survivor, a group that promotes exercise for cancer survivors. Some members are very athletic, while others are not.

"I'm one of those who know they should exercise but had never been to a gym," Lorna Nickols said. "(Dragon-boating) is a great team thing."

The team's coach, Cheance Adair, said it needs at least 22 crew members and four alternates to compete in the dragon-boat races held periodically in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and the Pacific Asia area.

For now, the cancer survivor team borrows a boat owned by the San Diego Dragon Boat team for its practices. The boats, which weigh 400 to 600 pounds and measure 40 to 48 feet in length, seat two across. The number of paddlers varies, with a steerer at the back and a drummer at the front.

Adair, who is the mail-center manager at the University of San Diego, also is a coach with the San Diego Outrigger and San Diego Dragon Boat teams. Adair, the only crew member who has not had cancer, said she had been trying to form a local team for several years, after watching breast cancer teams in other dragon-boat events.

"I was moved by the energy of the women who wanted to get out there and take back their lives," Adair said.

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