FLY-FISHING RETREATS
Survivors rebuild their strength, connect with nature and others
Karen Hussey is not one to let others do for her. With two children, a husband and a full-time job at the state Department of Transportation, life for this 54-year-old Fairfield resident orbits around taking care of others. When she was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in 2011, she reflexively added that to her endless “to do” list. Staying busy, for her, was a way to keep the fear and physical upheaval associated with her treatment at bay.
That’s what made her arrival at a 2015 Casting for Recovery retreat so unsettling. Less than a minute after Hussey walked through the door of the conference center in rural Litchfield, a smiling greeter took her luggage and graciously showed her to her room. It was the first of many gestures over the course of the next two and half days that disarmed Hussey and left her feeling supported, understood and able to let go.
“Going home I was crying,” she recalled. “A load was lifted off me. I had just been through this shit-show, and these women I didn’t know just took care of me.”
Casting for Recovery was created by Gwenn Perkins Bogart, a professional fly fishing guide, and Dr. Benita Walton, a reconstructive surgeon who at the time was working primarily with breast cancer patients.
Watson, an avid fly fisher, recognized the therapeutic benefits the gentle casting motion offered women working to rebuild arm and upper body strength after breast cancer surgery. The retreats combine fishing with the emotional benefit of connecting with nature and other women diagnosed with breast cancer.
The non-profit has steadily grown since its founding in Manchester, Vermont, in 1996. In 1998, there were just four retreats scattered around New England. Now based in Montana, the group organizes 60 retreats annually nationwide with the help of more than 1,600 volunteers, whose ranks include anglers, health care and psycho-social professionals and past participants.
Each retreat is open to just 14 participants of any age and at any stage of treatment or recovery from breast cancer — all free of charge. Participants apply and are randomly selected from the pool of applicants. Hussey, now the leader of the Connecticut retreat, is one of the many past participants turned volunteer.
“It was one of the best things I’ve ever done,” Hussey said. “It was nice to get away, nice to connect with women going through it. We talked about things I didn’t even talk to my doctor about. I fell in love with these people, really.”
Each retreat has its own flavor, but all offer a mix of activities such as morning walks, yoga and collage-making that address the physical, spiritual and psychological effects of living with or surviving breast cancer.
At a retreat in upstate New York in June, participants gathered on a sun-dappled patio overlooking a bend in the river to read poems, recite interfaith and Native American prayers and toss a ceremonial stone into the rushing water.
The highlight of each retreat, of course, is the fishing on the second day. Participants spend the afternoon of the first day getting fitted for gear and learning about safety, casting technique and how to tie flies. Each participant is paired with an experienced fly fishing instructor, who stays with them through the experience.
Immediately after their morning meditation, New York retreat participants headed out to meet their instructors, pull on their waders and march down to the banks of the river to fish.
Dr. Jill Peters volunteers as a fly fishing instructor with the Connecticut retreat. As a urologist, she is accustomed to caring for people, but helping out at the retreat gives her a special kind of satisfaction.
“When you’re with these people, there is like an awakening in some way,” she said. “Some arrive closed off and haven’t been able to talk about what they’re feeling or step away from their jobs and responsibilities at home. They let down the walls and share a lot of stuff. It’s a very special kind of intimacy with this group. They are learning something new. There is a sense of empowerment. They are so happy. It just fills my heart with joy.”
Sharon O’Connell recalls how standoffish she felt as she arrived at the 2012 Connecticut retreat, two years after treatment for Stage 1 breast cancer.
“I’m a quiet person,” said O’Connell, a retired project manager at Pitney Bowes who is now coordinator of the Connecticut retreat. “It took a while to warm up, but by the end, I was running the retreat.”
Hussey recalled the shock of discovering a grape-sized lump in her right breast and the chemo, radiation and two surgeries she endured to get rid of the 3-centimeter, HER 2-positive tumor — baldness, nausea and all.
At the retreat, she kissed the first fish she caught and put it all behind her.
“It’s not about fly fishing. It’s about letting go,” said Hussey, now an eight-year survivor. “My fly-fishing instructor said, ‘There’s your cancer, let it go. It’s not your life. It’s OK. Everything will be OK.’ I left feeling cleansed. Not so serious about life.”