Cancer survivors join dragon boat race
Team hopes to spread awareness by participating in annual HK competition
KUALA LUMPUR: Two Malaysian dragon boat teams – a former champion and a team of breast cancer survivors – will be making a bid in the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival this year.
The teams – Pacific West Dragon Boat and Pink Challengers – will be among those taking to the Central Harbourfront and Victoria Harbour in the contest, held in conjunction with the Duanwu festival.
The race, which is in its ninth edition, will take place from June 22 to 24.
Pink Challengers, a dragon boat team belonging to Breast Cancer Welfare Association Malaysia, formed in early 2005, is Malaysia’s first breast cancer survivor dragon boat team.
“We hope that by participating as a cancer survivors’ team, we can continue to spread the message that early detection and timely medical treatment can save lives and there is life after breast cancer,” said team spokesman Margaret Gabriel.
“We also hope to network with breast cancer survivor teams from other countries.”
Pacific West Dragon Boat won first place when participating for the very first time in 2006.
“Although it has been some time since our last win, this will be a great experience for our newest team members and we hope to be able to fly the Malaysian flag once again,” said Pacific West Dragon Boat captain Lawrence Koh.
Also known as the Dumpling festival, it commemorates the death of Chinese poet and minister Qu Yuan in the third century BC.
The CCB (Asia) Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races is one of the key highlights of the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival.
More than 4,500 athletes from all over the world, including Australia, New Zealand, France, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, India, Taiwan, China, Macau and Hong Kong, will be featured in the ultimate Dragon Boat showdown in Victoria Harbour.