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About Us > Busting With life

Busting With life

Inspired by the Canadian study and the growing success of Abreast In A Boat, Trish Nelson – a breast cancer survivor - approached the Auckland Cancer Society with a proposal to form an Auckland team. Thus Busting With Life was born in 1998, with Olympic Champion and National Dragon Boat Association co-ordinator Paul McDonald as advisor.

Off the water, the Busting With Life message has reached hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders:
  • Featured regularly in the New Zealand Herald and various community newspapers.
  • Covered in the “Inspirational Women” section of the NZ Women’s Weekly.
  • Profiled in Pink, Bella, NZ Geographic and Femme magazines.
  • Featured or interviewed on TV1’s breakfast show, “5:30 with Jude”, the “Mary Lambie Show”, Prime TV.
  • The subject of in an “Inside Out NZ” documentary.
  • On TVNZ OneNews with NZ’s Olympic yachtees.
  • As guest speakers at numerous public and private functions.
  • On Maori TV’s 2007 Dragon Boat Festival coverage.

On the water, Busting With Life has much to be proud of:

  • Competing in the NZ National Dragon Boat Championships every year since 1999.
  • Competing in regattas throughout New Zealand – Christchurch, Wellington, Tauranga, Hamilton, Auckland.
  • Competing internationally with much success:
o Vancouver – 2000 – came 7th overall in the first international breast cancer dragon boating regatta.
o 2003 – Hosted the inaugural South Pacific Breast Cancer regatta in Auckland and competed against teams from Canada, America and Australia – finishing 3rd overall.
o 2005 – Alcan Regatta in Vancouver, Canada – Busting With Life was the only breast cancer survivor team to qualify for the Recreation Grade final. And of 180 teams competing, most being male/female non-cancer teams, Busting With Life ranked 35th overall.
o 2005 – Abreast In A Boat 10 Year Breast Cancer Regatta – competing against 62 teams, Busting With life came in 4th.
o 2006 – Competing in Singapore against teams from Australia, Canada, USA, Hong Kong, UK, South Africa, Singapore and Malaysia at the inaugural IPDBC Breast Cancer Dragon Boat World Championships – Busting With Life proudly took home 1 silver and 2 bronze medals.