'Roses' show how canoeing can help overcome adversity

“Sometimes weeks can go by without any mention of cancer, but sometimes we talk about it a lot when one of us has had bad news.” How can it be that a group of women, each with their own terrifying experience of taking on the cruellest and most insidious of diseases, can be having so much fun and enjoying life so much? Because that's what Roses en Baie, or 'Roses in the Bay', is all about. Strength in numbers. A firmly held belief that by joinng together, this group of French women will have the power to stare down the scourge of breast cancer. And on the odd occasions when cancer does win out, the group are there for each other, talking openly about their feelings, helping one another come through to the other side. Roses en Baie was formed in October 2013, inspired by a television story about a team of women who competed in the famous ‘Vogalonga’ in Venice. The women in the story had all dealt with, or were dealing with, breast cancer. Sadly, it wasn’t hard to find enough women in a similar situation in the small French city of Granville, population approx. 20,000, to put together enough crew for a dragon boat of their own. Roses en Baie now has 74 members, although some are there through solidarity. The average age of the members is 42. “Our special bond is cancer (and its treatment), but several people who have not had cancer also participate, out of solidarity,” Laure Coulombier-Keenan, one of the original ‘Roses’, said. “A few of us left us for a ‘better world’, as we say. It is very difficult, we realise we are “lucky survivors”, but what we call the “Sword of Damoclès” is still there. “Usually we keep in touch with the families, if they want to, and once a year, when we organise the “Roses’ March” in October (1500 persons), we show pictures of our missing friends on a giant screen.” The bond between members is very strong, and while in an ideal world it would be good if there were no new members, the doors are always open for anyone touched by breast...

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