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Dannie

"cancer, you have a mighty foe in us"

The beautiful words by Louise Graff, one of dbc's coaches, that opens our first video is surely a vision of what cancer has taught me about how to live life...to paraphrase her thoughts..."the blade of the paddle is thirsted into the water and with a single motion pushed back past your body making you ready for the next stroke as you move forward with power and rhythmic energy, each stroke preparing you for the next..."

I was one of the lucky ones. I created some risk factors for my having breast cancer by having two children late in life (near forty) and close together and not breast feeding. This means I carried a build up of estrogen over a period of about three years. I also had had some fibrosis in my breasts, and they were unusually large for my small body. I decided to have a base line mammogram two years after my last child was born. This turned out to be a very important, positive decision. Awareness Fact: At that time, mammograms were not covered by insurance for women under 50 years of age, now that has changed to 40 years, but 35 is not too young to start, and even earlier if multiple women in your family tree have had cancer of any kind. End of Fact.

Two years after my baseline, the 43rd year of my life, Christmas 1988, the beginnings of microscopic calcifications throughout my milk duct glands in my left breast showed up on my annual mammogram. The medical community's advise for calcifications may be different today, but then I had two small children so I opted to have a modified radical mastectomy of my left breast, reconstruction of both breasts and be free of the concern and free of back and shoulder problems from over pendulous breasts. My anniversary of the cancer surgery is January 3 (1989) and I am cancer free still today (January 3, 2005). This is all attributable to being "aware" and taking "preventive" measures. That journey though breast cancer and the two years following through reconstruction surgeries, was like that blade in the water. I used all my energy and force to push the "water" in back of me and get poised for the next stroke in life, and it has served me well in all aspects of my life, especially my spiritual life. I put aside petty fears, strengthened my faith, and spent my "spare" time serving the community. Cancer actually became my gift -- it can happen! Out of that experience, I learned support from being with others "in your boat" and your attitude towards your illness and wellness make a huge difference. The varied outreach programs Hollings Cancer Center brought to this community with the opening of its doors, and my volunteer work there, connected me to all kinds of ways over the years to share my cancer experience and comfort others, Camp Bluebird and Dragon Boat Charleston now being the two I am most dedicated to. Being involved in these programs has been the gift - the gift of growing, sharing, loving, making new friends, and having experiences I would never have dreamed of (What! Me racing a boat in Canada at age 59!).

The sun rises, the sun sets over the Ashley River and the long thin slice of a 40 foot boat carrying 20-22 people who possess a special and unique hold over their illness, move this boat with their muscles and their hearts all with their own symbolism for how it empowers their lives as survivors. Sometimes when we are racing with the dragonhead attached, its bright red color leading us onward at our best pace, from somewhere that last burst of energy rises up through my body and I see the front of the boat rise up, the middle curve back, and the dragon, which is the heart of its paddlers, ejects fire and smoke from its mouth and screams "cancer, you have a mighty foe in us". Yeah.....