Dragons Abreast Central Coast

08/09/2026

💗 Metastatic Breast Cancer – Free Online Q&A with Breast Cancer Trials

This may be of interest to members of our Dragons Abreast Australia community living with metastatic breast cancer, as well as family and friends supporting someone with metastatic disease.

📅 Wednesday 16 September
⏰ 5:00–6:30pm AEST
💻 Online and free

This Breast Cancer Trials Q&A will explore the latest research and treatment developments, as well as the things that matter when living with metastatic breast cancer – quality of life, exercise, wellbeing, support and living well with an incurable diagnosis.

👉 Register here: https://bit.ly/3SrajRY

🐉💗

MEET OUR EXPERT PANEL

Join us online from 5:00–6:30pm (AEST), Wednesday 16 September for our free Q&A: Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Moderated by author and journalist Annabel Crabb, this session will provide a compassionate and informative space to explore the questions many people living with metastatic breast cancer—and those who love and care for them—are asking.

Featuring:
Dr Nicholas Zdenkowski: Medical oncologist with a strong interest in breast cancer clinical practice and research, and Chair of the Breast Cancer Trials Scientific Advisory Committee. Nick is also the study chair of the Breast Cancer Trials CAMBRIA-2 clinical trial.

Professor Lisa Beatty: Professor in clinical psychology at Flinders University with over 20 years of research and clinical expertise. Lisa has led the development of multiple digital psycho-oncology programs including Finding My Way-Advanced, targeted towards supporting metastatic breast cancer patients.

Dr Andrea Smith: Diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in 2016 and an early career researcher involved in collaborative, multi-disciplinary research in fields of health promotion and disease prevention, with a current focus on the application of implementation science and practice across the cancer continuum, specifically in metastatic breast cancer and melanoma.

Ms Sarah Lee: Diagnosed with de-novo ER+ HER2 low metastatic breast cancer in April 2017 at the age of 41. Since her diagnosis, Sarah has run 13 marathons and a 54km ultra-marathon, hiked over 400km of the Camino Trail in Spain and is planning for more marathons in the future. Sarah is a member of the Breast Cancer Trials Consumer Advisory Panel.

📅 Register now: https://bit.ly/3SrajRY

01/09/2026

🐉 A CRACKING RESULT FOR TEAM UNITY IN THE 1000M! 🇦🇺🇫🇷

Dragons Abreast Australia Team Unity put in a strong performance in the 1000m racing on Sunday at the IBCPC Festival in Aix-les-Bains, France. 🩷

Team Unity finished 2nd in their 1000m race in a time of 5:43.06.

5 minutes and 43 seconds of paddling, pedal to the metal. Those arms certainly earned their rest afterwards! 😅🐉

Second place — not too shabby! 👏🐉🩷

A fantastic way to finish an incredible week of paddling, racing and friendship with breast cancer paddlers from around the world. 🌏

A huge congratulations to all our DACC paddlers who were part of Team Unity. 🩷

31/08/2026

🌸 FLOWERS ON THE WATER 🌸

If you watch one video from the International Breast Cancer Paddlers Commission Festival in France, make it this one. 🩷

This is the Sandy Smith Global Finale, Flowers Ceremony and Closing Ceremony from the IBCPC Participatory Dragon Boat Festival 2026 in Aix-les-Bains.

The Flower Ceremony is one of the most moving traditions in breast cancer dragon boating.

As IBCPC President Meri Gibson has described it, every flower placed on the water can carry something different — a hope for continued health, an expression of gratitude, or a memory of someone no longer with us. 🌸

So it isn't simply a memorial for those we have lost. It is also about those who are still here — living, paddling, supporting one another and being grateful for the lives we are living now.

And there was something particularly meaningful in this ceremony: the acknowledgement of paddlers living with metastatic breast cancer.

IBCPC first introduced dedicated recognition of metastatic paddlers into the Flowers Ceremony at the 2023 festival in New Zealand. There were just 12 metastatic participants then. In France this year, over 100 metastatic paddlers with their supporters. 🩷

That recognition matters.

Because the Flowers Ceremony holds all of those realities together — remembrance, gratitude, hope, those we have lost, and those of us still living with breast cancer.

And there is a little piece of DACC out there on the water too. 🐉🩷
Keep watching until around 25 minutes in for Boat 7, the final boat, with our own Ann Holland representing Dragons Abreast Central Coast aboard.

Yes, tissues may be required. 🌸🩷

30/08/2026

🐉 PADDLERS READY… GO! 👀 EYES ON LANE 6! 🇦🇺🇫🇷

Here’s the 200m Final 12 at the 2026 IBCPC Participatory Dragon Boat Festival, France.

Lane 6 is Dragons Abreast Central Coast composite Team Unity — the crew in pink. 💗

They lined up against crews from Canada 🇨🇦, Italy 🇮🇹, USA 🇺🇸 and Spain 🇪🇸.

Watch the close-ups of Unity through the race — the synchronisation is impressive, with the blades entering and coming out together.

Team Unity finished third in 1:01.28. 🥉🇦🇺

30/08/2026

🥉 DIDN’T WE DO WELL! TEAM UNITY TAKES THIRD IN THE 200M IN FRANCE! 🇫🇷🐉

A fantastic result for Dragons Abreast Australia Team Unity 🇦🇺 at the 2026 IBCPC Participatory Dragon Boat Festival, France 🇫🇷.

Team Unity kicked off the 200m racing by winning Heat 24 in 1:01.30, earning their place in the final.

Then in Final 12, they went even faster — 1:01.28 to finish third! 🥉👏

🇦🇺 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇫🇷
Team Unity draws members from Far North Queensland (Cairns and Townsville), to South Victoria (Patterson Lakes), west to South Australia, in between South East Queensland and Dragons Abreast Central Coast from Central Coast NSW... with a splash of USA and Canada.

United in our love of dragon boating and our quest for wellbeing and connection at IBCPC.

What a result. Congratulations, ladies! 🥉🐉💗

28/08/2026

Friday night training on Budgewoi Lake 🐉🩷

What an evening for our weekly DACC training — cool, clear, barely a ripple on the lake, a beautiful sunset and then that full moon! 🌕✨

We were a smaller crew tonight, with quite a few of our usual shipmates over in France for the IBCPC Festival. 🇫🇷

And while we were incredibly lucky to have such calm conditions here on Budgewoi Lake, our thoughts were very much with our paddlers in France, where Friday's 500m racing had to be cancelled because of the weather conditions.

After travelling halfway around the world and putting in all that training, we know how disappointing that must be. Sending lots of DACC love to our French dragons and hoping the weather gods are much kinder for Saturday's racing. 🐉🩷🇫🇷

Back home, Coach Janice Kennedy ran a tight training session, with Annie Eloise Fahey and Jenice from Central Coast Dragon Boat Club setting the pace as strokes.

There was some sweep training too, with Alison Newell taking the rudder and Michelle guiding her through it. 👏

A beautiful Friday evening on our home waters — and tonight we were particularly grateful for just how kind Budgewoi Lake was to us.

DACC trains every Friday at 4.30 pm on Budgewoi Lake, Toukley.

27/08/2026

🎬 CONQUERING BREAST CANCER — AVOCA BEACH

Six of our Dragons Abreast Central Coast ladies headed to Avoca Beach Theatre for a special screening of Conquering Breast Cancer — and what an excellent film.

Informative, educational, sensitive and diverse, it explored breast cancer with real depth — from diagnosis and treatment through to reconstruction, rehabilitation, research, mental health and the realities of living with and beyond breast cancer.

But naturally, there was one part we were particularly excited to see… dragon boating! 🐲💕

Our fellow dragon Sandra Sturgess from Dragons Abreast Newcastle Hunter, sharing her experience of living with metastatic breast cancer and the role dragon boating plays in her life.

Sandra spoke about the physical activity, social connection and having something positive to do — a lifeline throughout the breast cancer journey. And one line particularly resonated with us:

“We’re not a support group, but we support each other.”

That sums up Dragons Abreast rather beautifully.

We don't come together simply to talk about cancer. We paddle, train, race, travel, laugh and get on with living — alongside people who understand the journey without it needing to be explained.

The evening finished with a thoughtful Q&A led by Prof. John Boyages AM, joined by Dr Sharon Laura, breast surgeon; Caitlin Hobday, occupational therapist and lymphoedema therapist from Cancer Rehabilitation & Lymphatic Solutions; and breast cancer survivor Belinda O’Neill. Together they brought medical, surgical, rehabilitation and lived-experience perspectives to the conversation.

Our biggest takeaway? Breast cancer treatment is increasingly about keeping people alive; the bigger human challenge is helping people keep living.

And perhaps that's exactly where dragon boating comes in — connection, movement, friendship, laughter and plenty still to look forward to. 🐉💗

A terrific film, a thought-provoking evening, and we were more than a little proud to see our fellow Dragons up there on the big screen.

Here’s to living — and paddling — well. 💗🐲

26/08/2026

🇫🇷🐉 FIRST LOOK: AIX-LES-BAINS

Our Dragons Abreast Central Coast ladies have arrived — and what a spectacular setting for the week ahead! 💗🐉

The dragons are already out on the lake… and soon it’ll be our turn👀