Introducing the Doha Wireless Warriors from Doha, Qatar

StartFragmentWe started as a dragon boat group last November, 2014 and were accepted into the IBCPC a year ago as the first breast cancer dragon boat group in Qatar, a small country in the Gulf region. Jane and the gang in Vancouver have been very supportive. The group started last year after I had had a recurrence of my breast cancer from 2010 and I was finally able to meet enough people during my journey here in Qatar to get it started. I had tried to get one started two years ago when another expat brought in a dragon boat but I was not able to connect with enough survivors or get much of a response from the support community in town. Currently, we have survivors from Algeria, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Canada, Zimbabwe, and the United States of America and supporters from those countries plus New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands and a few northern African countries. The group comes together early Saturday mornings for community and paddling and to gain strength physically and emotionally. We have two whatsapp groups- one for survivors to share information and chat with people who have experienced similar things and one for all the Doha wireless Warriors for information about practices and to share information of interest to one another. We have had people in the community come forward to offer workshops to anyone interested and to help members in financial need. It is all pretty loose and informal. I have not set up any structure for the group other than the whatsapp groups and all people need to do is write and say ‘ I am I” and they are put on the list to paddle that week. Since we are all expats living here and working contract work, there is no plan to buy a boat at this moment. Instead, we rent a boat from one of the local dragon boat groups that have sprung up in the last two years. It is working for us for now. We welcome all visiting BC dragon boaters to come and join us as well as members of our community who want to give it a try….and, of course, we are looking forward to Paddy’s return. EndFragment

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