Janna Brown has always dreamed of seeing a team of local breast cancer survivors paddling a dragon boat.
This summer, Brown’s dream became a reality.
PeaceHealth unveiled its new Kearney Breast Center dragon boat — a boat dedicated to breast cancer survivors and life after cancer — at a July blessing ceremony at Vancouver Lake.
Brown has been a dragon boat paddler for 13 years, coaches for Vancouver Lake Crew and is a breast cancer survivor. Through the years, she’s seen more and more breast cancer survivors turn out for the sport. Other cities across the country have teams of breast cancer survivors. It was time, she decided, for Vancouver to have a team — and a boat — too.
So she reached out to Connie Kearney, the Kearney Breast Center and the PeaceHealth Foundation. Connie and Lee Kearney and Brown and her husband, Dick Seekins, provided the money to build the boat and donated the new dragon boat to the Kearney Breast Center. The financial and in-kind donations for the boat totaled about $18,000.
“It makes me think of my current friends, survivors, but it also makes me remember the pink angels I’ve known over the past dozen years,” Brown said as she gazed at the boat.
Dr. Christine Katterhagen, a breast surgeon at the PeaceHealth Kearney Breast Centers in Vancouver and Longview, said a breast cancer survivor team shows women undergoing treatment that they can lead active, healthy lifestyles after breast cancer.
“It is so spot on and forward thinking of cancer treatment,” Katterhagen said. “Cancer really should be treated like a chronic disease like diabetes because it is treatable and survivable.”
A dragon boat team gets breast cancer survivors active — which has physical and psychological benefits — and connects them with a community of other survivors, Katterhagen said.
“We need to incorporate survivorship into treatment centers,” she said. “I can’t think of a better program in terms of survivorship.”
The camaraderie of a dragon boat team can also help women transition into life after cancer, Brown said.
“Typically, women with breast cancer are surrounded by the medical community,” Brown said. Women are helped and supported until they’re released from treatment, she said.
“That release, on one hand, is a good thing,” Brown said. “And on the other hand, it’s a bad thing. You’re alone. This eliminates that being by yourself.”
Brown is putting together a team of breast cancer survivors, and others who have been touched by breast cancer, for the new boat. The boat will be crewed by 22 people — 20 paddlers, a caller on the drum at the front of the boat, and a tiller steering from the rear of the boat. Once established, the group will come up with a team name.
Brown hopes to have the team ready to compete in the boat during the 2016 season.
In the meantime, the PeaceHealth Kearney Breast Center dragon boat has been making the rounds at regional dragon boat and community events.
“Even though the vision is for breast cancer survivors, it’s for everyone,” Brown said. “This is very much a community boat.”
