What have Hot Pink Dragons got to do with Breast Cancer?
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
For the past 2 weeks Sydney has been celebrating the Chinese New Year.
The Year of the Rat was ushered in in style, with lots of noise, fun, celebration and food. Contrary to what you may think, the Year of the Rat promises to be a good year!
Here in Sydney part of the fun are the Dragon Boat Races in Darling Harbour. A lot of Corporations have Dragon boat teams nowadays - I suppose it keeps the employees fit and builds team spirit.
Today some very different teams were racing - they were all
comprised of women, and every single on of these women was a survivor of breast cancer.
They all wore hot pink outfits (some even had pink paddles).
They had come from all over the country to compete in the race and “give a face to breast cancer”, to have fun, stay fit and experience solidarity and camaraderie. There were hundreds and hundreds of women, all ages, all nationalities. The ones who were unable to row supported their teams from the shore.
After the races, there was a flower ceremony. All the dragon boats went back out onto the water and formed one huge raft, the women linking hands. Thousands of pink/red rose petals were thrown into the water to commemorate all the women who had died of breast cancer. Some blue petals were amongst them as well (for the men, who can suffer and die from the disease as well).
The petals were floating on the surface of the water while everybody observed a minute of silence. It was an incredibly moving ceremony.
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