Pool of Life News
Amathus Pool of Life Nottingham Races June 2008
Set off at first light to pick up 2 pink ladies Chris, and Margy and get to Nottingham for 9:30 am. My Tom Tom had given up so we googled a route plan which took us on the Manchester ring road and we nearly ended up at the airport. If we had flown to Nottingham we would have got there in time for the Managers meeting. We stopped off for breakfast, fried bread!!! very healthy mushrooms and bacon and a mug of black coffee to keep us awake. Bad idea fried bread felt ill for the rest of the morning. Arrived at Nottingham late again and missed the managers meeting this is becoming a habit not on porpose please believe me. Everyone had arrived and waiting for the Pool of Life tent, this is the third time we have set up camp with the new gazebo and we still could not get it right (too many cooks spoil the broth). First things first get the cakes out and start selling, but unfortunately we had competition someone else was selling cakes and we had no Thelma to run around getting the crowds in. Well lets talk about what we actually came to Nottingham to do RACE. This will be the first shortest race report ever written by Little G due to a mental block or chemo brain what ever you may wish to call it, but all I can remember is coming 4th in every race even though in every picture we look like we are winning??? I do remember the weather hail, rain, snow and gale force winds we had to keep hold of the gazebo or it would have been in the middle of the river trent. We had a pink lady on each leg and invited anyone who wanted to shelter from the rain and buy a cake to come in and join us at a small charge. The last race of the day against Worcester was a will you won't you situation between us and Worcester guess what it was raining cats and dogs so we had a vote and the majority was against it (wimps) I will name no names they know who they are. A good day was had by all we kept dry with our Pool of Life gazebo and we all took some cakes home except for Wendy's we chucked them at the opposition (only joking) Wendy's cakes were a great improvement from Stockton. Went the wrong way home as Gerald told us to turn right out of the car park, but this confused us as you could only turn left?? but we got there in the end. If this report does not make any sense I apologise as I think I may have two events emerged into one please let me know if I have!!!!!
Little G
Amathus Pool of Life Charity Race Worcester June 2008
Off bright and early to pick Janet up in rural Cheshire. Everything going ok until “TOM” says “In 50 yards turn right, then bear right and you have reached your destination”. (Here I must say it was a woman’s voice giving us the directions)!
I don’t think so! Janet doesn't live here – not a house in sight – just fields!
Marion: “What do we do now?”
Gerald: “Give her a ring!”
M: “What’s the number?”
G: “You’ve got it, I gave it to you!”
M: “No you didn’t?”
G: “Try directory enquiries!”
M: “Janet is ex-directory!”
Just before the “domestic” escalates the phone rings – thankfully it’s Janet,
who then directs us by phone to her front door! Just like air traffic control!
With Janet tucked safely in the back alongside the gazebo we then had an uneventful journey down to Worcester.
Our site had been reserved by Barbara, Sally and Jim (Sally’s brother). Thanks to Barbara for attending the Crew Managers’ Meeting.
As we started to put up the gazebo the wind began to blow and it looked as if the day was going to be more suited to anything with a sail on it rather than dragon boats!
Gail arrived minus Margie and Thelma. Margie not well and Thelma has a bad chest infection (good news - Thelma is giving up the Woodbines – bad news is she is taking up smoking a pipe – what is worrying us is what she is going to put in it)!
Now onto the serious stuff! 21 teams in the preliminary heats with 3 teams in each heat. It’s all on time – first 9 to go through to the cup.
We are drawn in an all “pink” heat – Worcester Busters to port and Worcester Busters 2 to starboard. We were given “Chilli Lemon” (just like our “Amber”) and we had Matt on helm and our Joe on drum. We held off both teams to win in 1 min 47.86 secs.
With one heat to go we were lying in ninth position. Would we make it through to the cup or would it be the plate?
It was to be the plate as Breakspear Aspire Blue put in a faster time (I’m sure we spotted some under 18 GB paddlers in their crew!)
Back to site for our warm down to find Keith grimly holding on to the gazebo desperately trying not to do a Mary Poppins and disappear over the racecourse!
We decided to drop the gazebo as we didn’t want Linda to lose Keith!
So on to the plate heats:
Winner of each heat plus 2 fastest runners-up to qualify for the semis.
Matt was again on helm. This time we were in “Severn Spiritz”. We were again drawn in the centre lane against TS Worcester and Breakspear Aspire Yellow. With encouragement from Matt and Joe on drum we won in 1.45.02!
We were then in the plate semis against AM Knights and Clarity. We now felt that Matt was our lucky helm and we were in “Chilli Lemon” again – this was a really tight race – times being AM Knights 1.44.47, Clarity 1.43.13 and POL 1.42.65.
We had made it to the “finals”. We had won every race so far so could we make it a “clean sweep”?
OF COURSE WE COULD!!
We had our lucky helm, Matt and Joe on drum with his pink bandana and found we were in “Chilli Lemon” again! What more could we ask! Well, it was Gail going down the boat saying “Feel the love”! Matt had a smile on his face when Gail reached him! Thought he had a treat in store, maybe!!
It was a desperately tight race all the way down the course – Matt screamed at us from the back and Joe screamed at us from the front – hitting the drum with all his strength. It certainly worked as we pipped them at the post with a time of 1.41.08 – our best time of the day!! There was only one second separating the three teams!
To round off a perfect day, at the prizegiving,Wendy picked up the Steve Yeo Plate for the fastest crew in the preliminary heats that progressed to the plate competition, a matching plate for winning the Plate Major Final and, as they come in threes, another plate for the fastest BCS team! Wendy needed another pair of hands!!
What a fantastic achievement!! To win every race against some strong opposition!!
We must say a big thank you to all the Amathus paddlers who supported us on the day and a big thank you to Barbara for her words of encouragement, advice and help.
I’m sure our journeys home were happy ones even though the M5/M6 junction resembled a parking lot!
On to Nottingham this weekend for the league races and don’t forget our cake stall!
Thanks to everyone once again
Big G
VISIT OF LORD COE TO STOCKTON-ON-TEES
Lord Coe visited Stockton-on-Tees on Tuesday, 17 June, where he was introduced to Anne Holt, Margaret Shields and Marion Eastwood, who represented the Pool of Life.
They told him of how dragon boat racing for breast cancer survivors originated approximately 12 years ago in Canada with a small research project designed to study the impact of paddling on lymphoedema.
He was told the problems some ladies have with lymphoedema after surgery and that research showed that the sport of dragon boat racing, which involves strenuous and repetitive exercise of the upper body, did not induce lymphoedema and did not exacerbate the problem.
They mentioned having competed in Singapore in the first Breast Cancer Dragon Boat World Championships in 2006 returning with one silver and three bronze medals. Whilst competing in British Dragon Boat Association racing events and charity events throughout the year they aim to bring breast cancer awareness to ladies by distributing information leaflets as well as showing what can be achieved after diagnosis and treatment.
Lord Coe listened with interest in what he was told and said their story was very inspiring.
FIELD OF WOMEN FUND RAISING FOR BREAST CANCER RESEARCH
Pool of life ladies joined thousands of men and women on Sunday 6th July to raise breast cancer awareness and funds for breast cancer research. The Pool of Life members handed out leaflets and spoke to many women who are breast cancer survivors, family and supporters. The day was full of emotions happy and sad and best of all meeting so many wonderful people who support the Linda McCartney Centre and many breast cancer charities. Well done everyone.
News Archives
May 2008 Canal Charity Paddle
Summer 2007
Liverpool 2008 Race Report
Stockton Races