Meet the Beautiful Breast Cancer Survivors of the

2010 International Dragon Boat Festival

in Peterborough, Canada

Take a look at our travels and meet the beautiful survivors of the 2010 International Dragon Boat Festival!  This festival was the International Races for Breast Cancer Survivor Teams from around the world and it was held in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.  With 73 Teams from around the world it was truly amazing!! There where teams from Canada, the States, Australia, Italy, South Africa and the UK. This event has been in the planning stages for Peterborough and Survivors Abreast, host of the races, for the last two years, and what an outstanding job they did! Other then a cliche in the weather, which of course could not be helped by anyone, the festival was a huge success!!

So to start at the beginning.  First let me say, on my blog, I have taken a step a head as the book has been traveling like crazy, but no worries, I will get back on track after this blog with our other amazing signers!  But while this was fresh in my mind I wanted to get it written so I could share this wonderful event. 

I traveled to Canada with one of my dearest friends, Barb.  Barb and I flew into Toronto and rented a car to travel to Peterborough.  We had some serious luggage in tow as we had a booth at this event with the book and new t-shirts and brought them along with us on the plane.

Barb with five bags of luggage upon our arrival

We managed to get through customs and get our luggage loaded in our rent a car and off we headed to beautiful Peterborough!  We arrived just in time to see our beautiful surrounding and view from our hotel room.  What a lovely place to have a race.  I have raced and traveled now for almost nine years and this has been one of the prettiest venues yet.  The park was beautiful, the people were warm and kind and the weather was like Canada; very beautiful and sunny on Friday, poured like crazy on Saturday, which of course was the first day of the races.  At first I felt a bit odd being there, as this is the first race I have attended and not raced in almost nine years, but after the rain on Saturday, I was okay!  After all we were there to spread the word about the book and helping as many survivors as we could with its humor!!

Friday was a beautiful day, we got set-up in the warm sunshine and had the honor of watching the parade of survivors march through the streets of Peterborough, it was really something to see, just a sea of pink! And all the gals were truly decked out!

Start of Parade - Take a look at all the supporters as well!

Survivor in her Pink Parade outfit!

Saturday, as I mentioned, was just some serious rain, especially for us Southern Californian's!  But not only did it rain, it was COLD! Again, I was pretty okay with not racing today as I have raced in this situation many times before and staying dry was good!  But the teams where amazing, all raced and held tough no matter the weather!  But after a cancer diagnoses, a little weather is really nothing in the scheme of things, so off they went.  Today was also the Survivors Ceremony.  In all my years of participating in survivor ceremonies, this was one of the most beautiful I had witness.  I don't think there was a dry eye in the place.  The weather held up and did not rain for this part of the day, and the towns people and supporters of Petersborough where out in full force.  Not only where the survivors allowed to throw their pink carnations in the water in honor of those we have loved and lost, but the supporters on the shore could purchase pink carnations, with the money being donated, and could throw their flowers in the water as well. Now remember this was a breast cancer race with 73 teams participating making it more then 3000 survivors lining the beach with survivors in the water and supporters on the side.  It could do nothing, but warm your heart!

Survivors on the water and the shore for Survivors Ceremony

Survivors forming a Pink Ribbon on Shore during the Ceremony

After I regained my composure from this truly moving ceremony, it was back to the tent to try and warm up! Although the event was such a success and so well done, the best part for me was meeting everyone!  I had been sending emails regarding the book and booth and had several people stop by and introduce themselves.  I also took the Traveling Book with me as well and several teams came over to sign the book!  It was such an inspiration to me and so meaningful, I can not begin to explain!  I have written this book to help others and to reach out with something I thought helped me through this journey that we never asked for, but as you can see...fought!  And these moments make all the hardwork worthwhile.

So many people touched my heart while I was there, too many to count and I would never want to leave anyone out, but I do want to mention Sue Cogley of the UK from Paddlers for Life.  Sue was the first book that I sold to the UK and has had so much faith in the book that she has been passing it around to all her team members and anyone it might help.  I was so happy to meet her and her team.  Just take a look at them signing the book and possing for a picture!  Thank you so much Sue...this meant a lot!

    Sue from Paddlers for Life signing the book

     

Paddlers for Life Team lining up to sign the book   

      The Beautiful Paddlers for Life Team

Now besides this beautiful team we had many others come by to sign the book.  Now remember this book is being sent around the world for survivors and supporters signatures to raise awareness, to help a wonderful charity, to show support and to just really cheer those up who need it, so what better way then with women from around the world that have taken something so devasting as breast cancer and turned it into something so positive as dragon boating! 

Cheers to all of them! 

Take a look at all the others.... and again my sincere and heartfelt thanks for stopping by and taking your time to sign my book!  This was truly priceless!!

Beautiful Members of the Italian Team with their Coach

From Canada - The Breast Buddies!

Mary was truly an inspiration and Jan promises to paddle with NAC on her next visit to California!

   From Australia - The beautiful in Pink - Aussie Dragonflies

If this was not enough, some of the gals came back to show me how they put my buttons to good use! Take a look at how marvelous this looks!!

Thanks Judy!!

My sincere and heartfelt thanks to some truly inspirational, courageous women who have fought a good fight and are still standing and showing the world their strength! 

To my fellow Ladies in Pink may you always....

Embrace Life, Have confidence in Yourself, and Take Action!

Paddles Up!

Up next on my blog...Barb and I continued our journey to Niagara Falls were we had a very special person sign the Traveling Book...the Illustrator

Darren Cranford

(stay tuned)