Nancy Thomas’ approach to life and battling cancer three times can be summed up in an expression she learned from fellow dragon-boat team members: “paddles up,” she says confidently.
“Paddles up is what we say when we get ready to go and paddles up is kind of a key word for women here,” Thomas said.
The 74-year-old Renton resident first was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003. She didn’t want to accept the bad news.
“I just didn’t believe it; I couldn’t because I’m healthy and I was tearful, but I was mad,” she recalls.
When she had her first re-occurrence, she was just plain angry and by the third time in 2007 her husband Lew thought she was going to die, but Thomas said she wasn’t ready.
Being the very strong-minded person that she is, she sought activities to motivate and strengthen her. In the process she discovered the sport of dragon-boat racing through a niece who lives in California, who also had cancer. Her niece, Rita Colonell, came up to Washington for a dragon-boat race and encouraged Thomas to get involved.
It didn’t take much to get Thomas hooked. She is naturally an athletic person, who wishes she had been born in a time when she could have done more athletic activities. This paired with a fondness for the water and she signed up with Team Survivor Northwest in no time.
The dragon boat team started in 2000, when the team paired up with local club, Club SAKE, to comprise a team of just cancer survivors.
The team averages about 50 people each year and during the 12 years, they’ve had about 300 individual women.
“The paddling team is a very close-knit group of women,” said Alicia Supernavage, director of Team Survivor Northwest via email. “The sport of dragon-boating is more about teamwork than brute strength.”
“This allows women of all ages, all levels of recovery and fitness to work together to paddle well. The team is very much a support group for one another but not in the traditional sense, sitting around a room and talking.”
The races, about four or five, happen in the summer, but there are other opportunities with other non-cancer boat clubs to practice during the winter.
Thomas’ new passion had her paddling all last winter. She’s been with the sport for two years now.
Her team practices for about an hour and a half in Lake Washington off Leschi twice a week on Saturday and Tuesday nights.
“The cancer boat itself, Survivor SAKE team, it lifts us; it encourages us,” Thomas said. “You never hear anybody discouraged; they’re always smiling and laughing.”
There is no talk of cancer on the boat, Thomas said. If members have questions and want to discuss them then that kind of conversation usually takes place off the boat.
She’s watched team members care for one another after surgeries, rejoice together at good news and develop a close camaraderie.
“I have found – I’m not here to brag about myself, but – cancer survivors are the strongest, most optimistic, most supportive, cheerful ever women that there are around,” Thomas said.
Paddling teams have raced locally as well as in Taiwan and Canada.
Thomas now calls paddling a lifestyle, more than just a workout and an accomplishment outside even her battle with cancer.
But to overcome cancer three times took the support of her doctors at Group Health, a very strong family, a really strong belief in God, her strong-willed mind and drive to accomplish and finally the support of cancer organizations, she said.
She advises anyone who’s been recently diagnosed to get to it early. Thomas had breast screenings because her mother Irene Taylor had breast cancer, but survived it. If you have apprehension about a diagnosis get a second opinion she says, do research and don’t give up.
“A positive attitude is what reigns on the boat,” Thomas said. “It isn’t just cancer society, it’s life. We can do this.”
Team Survivor Northwest offers their dragon boat program to women in treatment and survivors of breast cancer for free.
For more information, visit www.teamsurvivornw.org.
Breast cancer screening
Gene Juarez Salons and Spas is partnering with Komen Puget Sound to provide mammograms in its salons throughout the Puget Sound area, including Southcenter.
Mammograms are available from 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. To make an appointment, call 888-233-6121.
