Blog Windsor

It was a weekend of racing. Yesterday Blog Windsor showed you the lawn mower racing out in Essex and today it’s the Dragon Boats for the Cure dragon boat races that were held on the Detroit River Saturday July 14th and 15th.

Winners! , originally uploaded by apretli.

My friend’s mom is part of the Wonderbroad team and from their website I learned the history of the races:

In the fall of 1995, a research project was being conducted by Dr. Don McKenzie, a sports medicine physician and an exercise physiologist at the Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Centre at the University of British Columbia.

Dr. McKenzie wanted to disprove the popular belief that strenuous upper-body exercise in women treated for breast cancer would encourage lymphedema. Lymphedema is a permanent, irreversible swelling of the arm and chest area that can develop any time after lymph node surgery and radiation treatment. In February 1996, in Vancouver, B.C. the first team was formed calling themselves “Abreast In A Boat”.

Starting as a medical study involving one crew of 25 women, Breast Cancer Survivor Dragon Boat racing has grown into a sport involving more than 80 teams from coast to coast and all around the world.

The women on the team gain multiple benefits — the exercise is obvious but the good times and good friends are an unexpected bonus.

Dragon Boat Racing, originally uploaded by apretli.

The first day of the races are for breast cancer survivors — all the members of the team above are breast cancer survivors. Day two is for the many supporters who collect pledges for the cure.

Thanks to all the flickr photographers for sharing. Be sure to check out their photostreams — just click on a name or an image. And tell your friends to come check out the site! It’s cheaper than a bus ticket.
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