Dr Don McKenzie who started a world-wide movement of breast cancer dragonboating was in Tauranga this weekend.
Dr McKenzie was a guest of the New Zealand Dragon Boat Association and spoke at the regatta in Tauranga Novemeber 28.
The regatta at the Lakes, Tauriko, featured a poignant flower ceremony on the water for the victims of breast cancer. There was corporate races and a breast cancer race around midday, just before the flower ceremony.
In New Zealand more than 600 women die from breast cancer every year.
Nineteen years ago Dr McKenzie challenged the conventional medical thinking that breast cancer survivors should avoid rigorous upper body exercise.
The Canadian Professor set up a dragon boating team and proved that the exercise only had positive effects for the women involved.
Since then breast cancer paddling has spread to dozens of countries, with thousands of women competing in an international regatta every four years (the most recent was in Florida last year and the next one is in Florence in 2018).
Tauranga boasts one of New Zealand’s top teams – the Boobops – who won the national title four years in a row from 2010 to 2013.
Images by George Novak.
Action from Te Puke Intermediate and Te Ranga School teams in the hockey, rip rugby, girls and boys rugby and netball competitions from day 3 of AIMS Games 2024.
More than 2500 people have marched on State Highway 2 and Hewlett’s Road after gathering at Whareroa Reserve this morning to join a national day of disruption launched by Te Pāti Māori to coincide with Budget day.
Act party leader David Seymour was taking off just as the party was dropping in the polls.
Seymour took to the skies in a classic Boeing Stearman bi-plane ahead of a public meeting at the Classic Flyers Aviation Museum in Mount Maunganui on Wednesday night. At the same time, the latest 1News Verian poll suggested Act was down two percentage points.
Te Puke High School students took to the stage to celebrate the range of cultures within the school for the annual Multicultural Performance Evening last week. It was an evening of colour, skill, music and appreciation. Stuart Whitaker went along.
This Bethlehem home won several awards, including the supreme award, at the 2023 Bay of Plenty and Central Plateau Registered Master Builders House of the Year competition. Photos / Supplied
