IN THE SAME BOAT
Special Article for The Times by NJ DeVico
Health & Fitness, May 19, 2008

"I'm always up for it," says Terry Coleman of Lawrenceville about dragon boating. This is her seventh season paddling for Machestic Dragons, a team of breast cancer survivors, and her first as the team's president.

How did a 2000-year-old Chinese sport take hold among modern western breast cancer survivors? Donald McKenzie, MD, a sports medicine physiologist at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, launched the first survivor team in 1996 to challenged a theory that repetitive, upper-body exercise in these women encourages lymphedema. On his team, none of the survivors developed the chronic, difficult-to-treat swelling of the limbs, and the exercise exacerbated none of the existing cases.

Three times a week, the Machestic Dragons back their 40-foot-long boat into the lake at Mercer County Park. Up to 20 members embark from the back to the front. The steerer steps in first; then the boat fills with paddlers. The two paddlers in the front seat, the strokers, climb in last, usually with wet feet and ankles. The paddlers follow the strokers. Every one listens for coach Ellen Law of East Hanover who calls the strokes. The team practices different starts, quick strokes, timing or just paddles easily. In races, the drummer watches the strokers. The faster they paddle, the faster the drum beat. Paddlers are so focused that they can feel if someone is off.

Right now the team is preparing for their second Paddle for Pink Dragon Boat Festival on Sunday, June 1 at Mercer County Park Marina. It's a day of races, 250 meters long in which 25 Open Teams will participate, plus 6 Survivor Teams. Following a Chinese tradition, an official or dignitary will perform an eye-dotting ceremony to wake up the dragons and to bring good luck to the paddlers. Last year the Machestic Dragons raised $2,500 for the Breast Cancer Resource Center (BCRC) of the Princeton YWCA. They hope to top that this year.

"I'd like people to come out and watch, or even sign up to race," says Coleman. "Would love to find Corporate Sponsors for next year's race!"

"I never even heard of dragon boating until I got a flyer from the BCRC," says Coleman. "Now these women are my new best friends. We've traveled the east coast, Montreal, Canada and Berlin, Germany. And I've even competed in the largest breast cancer survivor race to date, in Caloundra, Australia.

"The thing about dragon boat racing is, there's plenty of support, companionship and physical activity with women who have been through the same thing you have. It makes body and mind strong. A few of the women are in their seventies and they are fit. I feel healthier than I ever have."

"I'm a rookie," says Donna Jones of Hopewell. " I found my lump in 2007 with a routine mammogram. I was a healthy 45; I went to the gym; I ate the right things. It's a classic case of 'It can happen to anybody.' "

She, too, found Machestic Dragons through BCRC where Jones had taken food classes, joined support groups and gotten a free wig during chemo.

She joined the team in January, began training and taking exercise classes. "Physically, I don't think I'm up to par. It leaves me winded. But it's a wonderful opportunity to try, to be with other women. Some of them are pretty elderly, so I suck it up. If they can do this, I certainly can. Anything that will make me well, physically and mentally." she says. ' Not only did Jones have a lumpectomy with lymph node involvement at Stage II, five months of chemotherapy and two months of radiation, but her father died during her ordeal.

"Adversity brings out the worst or the best in people. It brought out the best in my husband. We live each day differently. We know how deep our love is. People go through life not knowing how blessed they are.

"I truly believe in God's plan and what he has in store for me. I'm still healing, still searching; I'm trying everything. Machestic Dragons is a part of that. What a wonderful group of women! They've been through the same ordeal. It's a sisterhood. It strongly states there is life after breast cancer.

"I was diagnosed in November 2004, just after I moved to Burlington, in the farm country," says Annie Carricato. She wanted to be with her four grandchildren.

"I had a lumpectomy and one week of chemo. "I can't do this," I said. It's against my nature." She stopped chemo and compromised with radiation.

"I felt so betrayed by my body and spirit; you think you're so in touch and..." Carricato leaves her sentence unfinished.

She had a nervous breakdown. "How can this happen to me?" I thought. "Eventually you get your sense of humor back,"says Carricato.

Yet, on some days she believed what a friend once told her. "When one door closes, another one opens. It's a trap door. And it leads to hell."

She was depressed, as many cancer patients and survivors are, and knew she had to do something. "I needed to stay engaged in life, but I didn't see anything that was attractive to me," she says.

"Carricato's doctor told her she needed endorphins: Either exercise more or take drugs. While enrolled in BCRC's Healing Through Creativity, Arietta Wismer of Skillman, invited Carricato to join the dragon boat team.

"Sounds great," she recalls saying. "But you wouldn't want me on your team. I was always the last one picked." "Oh, no, no," said Wismer. "We take anybody."

"What the heck; I'm gonna try," I said. I started training last year and I found it so empowering. I didn't think I could feel like this again. Last year I was so high all summer. I feel exhilaration in the races. We're a community and I get tearful for people who should be in the boat...but they're gone. The first flower ceremony left me crying," says Carricato.

That's when the team rows to the center of the lake during their Community Festival "Paddle For Pink" in June, observing a moment of silence and then throws a pink carnation to represent someone in their lives.

Two things still haunt Carricato. As the season winds down, "In October, I get flat again," she says. Attending aerobics class in the winter helps. "But I'm in a continuous state of fear waiting for the results of all those tests. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"They are my heroes, these women," says Sharon Nemeth of her team mates. Midge Franco recommended dragon boating to her and invited the Robbinsville resident to join the team three years ago, even though she is not a breast cancer survivor. About one-third of her teammates are supporters.

"It's camaraderie and exercise and I fell in love with their attitude. They're energetic and passionate about being outside. It's a floating support group," she says. "I intended to be a supporter, but it's therapeutic for me to be with peers whose common goal is wellness. At first I thought, "I'm going to sink this boat. But it's a team sport. If one person improves her stroke, the boat goes faster. The key is to be in alignment and pull as much water as you can."

"After a stressful day, you go out on the water; you're in the fresh air; you watch the geese. The sunset over Mercer Lake reminds me of sunsets in Hawaii."

"I can't speculate where any of the women are in the course of their illness, but it's always in the back of my head. I'm so impressed; no one talks about their illness. They're involved for the activity. The team has had some losses. But they work through it, staying where they need to be."

Linda Kerwin of Robbinsville found a lump in 2001. After a mastectomy, and removal of 24 lymph nodes, all clear, she recovered well. But after four months of harsh chemo, "I lost all my stamina, all my hair and 25 pounds. Then a friend read about the dragon boat team."

"But I wasn't athletic," Kerwin says. "When you're ill, you just don't remember what it's like to feel healthy and in control. Breast cancer derailed me."

Now Kerwin says having cancer changed her perspective. "I had issues with people helping me and accepting generosity; I was in bad relationships; I always took the low road. I finally said, I don't need this; life is too short! Some good has to come out of this; I know there's a reason. My life has turned around," says Kerwin. "I had to get hit over the head, though."

"I remember sitting on the sofa, toward the end of my chemo crying. God, who's going to want me now? I'm damaged goods. Bring me someone who will cherish me."

"Then I found a letter in my mailbox. I'm reading this nine- or 10-page letter with my chemo brain: "Do you remember me from college? I've been thinking about you." This guy and I hit it off one semester, but he got married.

She delayed responding to the letter for months. "Finally, he drives from upstate New York. He has the same face, a bit more weight and a pony tail," she says. Six years later, he still adores her. "I got out of my way. I deserve good things."

But Kerwin has lost four friends to breast cancer. "It's an epidemic. The boat is the best avenue for women to survive. It's a sisterhood. We're not exercise nuts. It's the camaraderie, and we're getting on with life. I've met some extraordinary women through dragon boating; there's no other way our paths would have crossed."