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Breast cancer
survivor travels the world with new perspective
By
Pamela A. Keene
 Ten
years ago, Braselton resident Nancy Crawford was diagnosed with
breast cancer, and it changed her life – but not in the way so many
breast cancer survivors are changed. Crawford, now in her early 60s,
has become an athletic ambassador for breast cancer survivors around
the globe.
Two years after her surgery, she joined a special
group of survivors and became a member of Dragon Boat Atlanta. The
22-member all-female team, now called the “Steel Magnolias,” came
together in 2004 at the Lake Lanier Olympic Center to train for
Atlanta’s Dragon Boat festival that September. Eight months later,
she and her 21 teammates journeyed to Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada, for the 10th Annual International Breast Cancer Survivors
Dragon Boat Festival, “10 Years Abreast.”
“That was such an incredible experience, meeting so
many breast cancer survivors and traveling with my good friends from
Atlanta to represent Georgia in 2005,” Crawford said. “I made so
many friends on that trip and it inspired me to travel to the
international breast cancer events ever since.”
 Today,
the accountant-turned-athlete shares memories of trips to Australia,
Italy, the Philippines and Switzerland where she has paddled with
“Pink Sisters,” an international dragon boat team. Sometimes she
travels with a couple of other “Steel Magnolia” paddlers; she also
has ventured abroad solo.
“Even when I go by myself, I know people wherever we
go,” she said. “I paddle internationally with many women from the
international team, plus we always meet more people – breast cancer
survivors and breast cancer supporters – along the way.”
Before embracing dragon boating, Crawford had
traveled overseas twice – to Israel and the Holy Land in 2001 and to
Greece and Turkey in 2002 – both trips with other congregation
members from her church, Christ the King Lutheran in Norcross.
“The trip to Turkey and Greece, “St. Paul’s Journey,”
came right after my surgery, and since I didn’t need chemotherapy,
my doctors allowed me to go,” she said. “One of the most moving
things about that trip was the healing service our pastor did on the
site of Greece’s first hospital. It was truly amazing.”
Crawford’s trip to Vancouver with Dragon Boat Atlanta
in 2005 opened the door to international travel. She met several
members of the Canadian team and, along with two other Dragon Boat
Atlanta paddlers, was asked to join their team on Angels Abreast
from British Columbia. The team traveled to Australia in 2007 and
participated in the Venice, Italy, 34th Annual Vogalonga in 2008.
It’s an annual non-motorized boating event that features crafts from
canoes to Dragon Boats.
“There were 1,600 boats paddling and rowing the
canals of Venice,” she said. “The people lining the canals chanted
‘USA ... USA … USA’ as we went by. In return, we’d hit our paddles
on the sides of the boat three times, then raise them high and
answer ‘Salute, Salute,’ – pronounced sah LU tay. It means health
and well being.”
In 2009, she journeyed to Switzerland by way of
Paris, where her Pink Sisters international team lead the “Flower
Ceremony” and then took first place in their dragon boat division.
Breast cancer dragon boat events in 2010 (Peterborough, Ontario)
with Dragon Boat Atlanta and 2011 in the Philippines with Pink
Sisters added to her adventures.
Her 2012 breast cancer dragon boat competition takes
place on the Sea of Galilee.
“It’s their first big dragon boat event,” she said.
“We’ll race there in mid-May and then travel to another dragon boat
race in Istanbul the next week.”
Not all of Crawford’s races support the breast-cancer
cause, but the majority of her travels involve educating people
about breast cancer.
She is an active member of Dragon Boat Atlanta; she
serves as the group’s financial director. In addition to the Steel
Magnolias, there’s a breast cancer support team of family and
friends who often paddle and compete domestically with the Steel
Magnolias.
“We’ve become a family after all these years,” she
said. “Together we all work to make the boat move, and as paddlers –
not rowers – we look forward both in our boats and in our lives.”
The Steel Magnolias will begin practices on the
weekends at the Lanier Olympic Center in late February or early
March to prepare for this year’s Atlanta Dragon Boat Festival on
Lake Lanier.
“Dragon Boat Atlanta is always looking for more
members,” she said. “Right now, there are about 30 of us. We’ve just
applied for our 501(c)3 status and hope to grow the organization.
Anyone is welcome as long as they support the breast cancer cause.”
People she meets who learn of her breast cancer
generally comment sympathetically.
“I quickly tell them that if I hadn’t had breast
cancer, I never would have met all these wonderful people and
traveled to so many great places,” Crawford said. “I never imagined
the experiences I would have.”
For information about Dragon Boat Atlanta, e-mail
Crawford at
nlcrawford@bellsouth.net.
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