Penticton breast cancer survivors donate $30K to hospital fund

PENTICTON – A local dragon boat team is helping keep the hospital equipment fund afloat with a large donation.

Penticton’s Survivorship team, a group of Penticton area breast cancer survivors and dragon boat racers, are contributing $30,000 to the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation's hospital equipment fund. The donation will be made in several instalments.

The survivorship experience has grown from humble beginnings in 2000, when 20 inexperienced paddlers formed Penticton’s first dragon boat team under the guidance of coach Don Mulhall.

Today there are 10 dragon boat teams in Penticton, and Survivorship has since grown to become one of the best known Dragonboat teams in the province, donating to charities promoting women’s health issues.

Survivorship team treasurer Carol-Ann Browne says the group now has 35 members and provides an element of support for those who have battled breast cancer.

“The community has given us so much, with our treatments and their support for our dragon boating. Now we can give back. I see this as our legacy,” she says.

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