Dragons Abreast Townsville helps breast cancer survivors mentally and physically
The opportunity to find new strength mentally and physically to cope with her cancer diagnosis is what Pam McHugh treasures about Dragons Abreast Townsville.
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The opportunity to find new strength mentally and physically to cope with her cancer diagnosis is what Pam McHugh treasures about Dragons Abreast Townsville.
The clubs co-ordinator said she was familiar with the club before she was given her breast cancer diagnosis.
“I was in Mount Isa for 24 years and I thought I needed to do something with the water after so many years in outback,” she said.
“I often walked up The Strand and thought how much fun (Dragons Abreast) were having so I was interested in joining anyway and I had been (in Townsville) six months after I got my diagnosis of breast cancer.”
Ms McHugh said the club was part of the national movement of Dragons Abreast clubs that help women with breast cancer lead full and active lives through paddling.
“Paddling a boat can hold 28 people, the boat weighs 200kg and you sit side-by-side and you have a buddy and we dig deep and we just paddle,” she said.
“Paddling is the best medicine for your head and it is great to be with girls and physically it has been proven good for your health.”
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The club is commonly known as ‘The Pinkies’ with Ms McHugh saying the Townsville ladies were looking forward to racing at the upcoming Lake Karapiro regatta.
“We pretty much we compete on a local, national and international level and the girls have all been to Florence and Shanghai and we are all at the moment getting fit for New Zealand in 2022,” she said.
“We would like to put a full boat in and we have a survivors boat of 12 but we need 20 to put a full team in.”
Ms McHugh said
“The focus is really on your strengths as a women and strengths through your recovery and then after that all the fun and games come along,” she said.
“We can get very competitive but we are proud of our strength and our fitness.”
Ms McHugh said the club had 44 members and many of the ladies had different motivations for signing up with the club.
“The whole aim of doing this is to encourage people to come along and join us as a social member or come to get in to boat,” she said.
“A lot of people join the club because they have lost their mother or their grandmother and they are keeping the dream alive for someone that they have lost.”
Originally published as Dragons Abreast Townsville helps breast cancer survivors mentally and physically