The Head of the Charles, the world’s largest three-day regatta, will row this weekend in Boston. Among the 11,000 competitors, 99 of them will be taking part in a first-of-its-kind race and eight of them are rowers who train in Westport.
Bree Healey loves mornings on the Saugatuck River.
“It’s very serene out there, it’s very quiet,” said Healey. “There’s always someone in the boat who says, ‘Guys, take a moment. Look around see what’s around you and be thankful.’”
On those early mornings in a boat the same color as the sunrise, you’ll find a group of women who never expected to be there.
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“Never,” said Healey.
“Oh my gosh, never,” said Karen Herman with a laugh.
“Never rowed before,” said Amy Bauer.
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So, this group of rowers previously had never rowed before, but that’s not the unexpected part.
“The cancer got me here,” said Healey, a breast cancer survivor.
They’re all breast cancer survivors. But the cancer is no longer and this survivor group here at Saugatuck is amazing.
The pink boat is full of breast cancer survivors who call themselves the Saugatuck Survive-Oars and they are part of the international Survivor Rowing Network.
“When I heard about the survivor program, I'm like, ‘I'm gonna do it,’” said Herman, who joined in 2018. “Even though I have no idea how.”
“I remember the first time I came down here, I did the erg for maybe five minutes and was like, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” said Healey. “And then I look over to my left and to my right and I see these women doing it and I’m like, they were me once and I can do this.”
There's the physical healing, of course, but the mental support through rehab and recurrences is what really stands out.
“Second time around with this community was a game-changer,” said Bauer, who went through a recurrence after she’d joined the Survive-Oars. “I really felt like ‘I can do this,’ I’ve done it before and these women were my biggest cheerleaders.”
This October, they’ll have something else to cheer for: the first-ever survivor row race at the Head of the Charles.
“We can do this. We can do hard things. We can row in the Head of the Charles Regatta,” said Herman.
Two boats rowed last year in an exhibition. This year, there are 11 - nine from the United States, one from France and one from Italy.
“It was probably one of the most extraordinary weekends of my life,” said Bauer, who rowed in last year’s exhibition. “To be able to do it this year with my teammates is incredible.”
Because it is true, they never expected any of this, but it helps to know they’re all in the same boat.
“When you go through treatment and you've gone through kind of hell and gotten back that feeling after you've had a hard row and you’re spent and you feel like you can’t just take one more stroke, it's nothing compared to where we've been,” said Bauer. “So yeah, I know I'm going to be able to get back and do this. I've got more in me.”
The Survivor Row will take place on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 3:30 p.m. on the Charles River in Boston.
