{"id":429039,"date":"2026-10-16T00:42:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T00:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429039\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T00:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T00:42:18","slug":"breast-cancer-survivors-find-strength-sisterhood-on-orlando-rowing-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429039\/","title":{"rendered":"Breast cancer survivors find strength, sisterhood on Orlando rowing team"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nancy<\/a><\/p>\n

As the sun set over Lake Fairview in Orlando, a group of breast cancer survivors gathered to row with purpose as part of the Warriors on Water dragon boat team. <\/p>\n

Every member of the team is a breast cancer survivor, including Jamie Davis, who was diagnosed with triple-negative, stage 3 breast cancer at 38 years old while working as a firefighter paramedic for the city of Cocoa. <\/p>\n

“I had five surgeries. I did 16 rounds of chemo, 33 rounds of radiation immunotherapy, and, you know, a lot of tears,” Davis said. <\/p>\n

Surviving cancer meant making significant changes in her life. <\/p>\n

“It was a big transition going from, being that that being my home and my family. And then basically having that cut off out of nowhere and being left with, what do I do now?” she said. <\/p>\n

Davis found a new family among the Warriors on Water, a team of women who have bonded beyond their cancer journeys. <\/p>\n

Beth Schumacher, one of the original members who has been with the team since 2009, described the teamwork involved in dragon boat rowing. <\/p>\n

“We have ten seats, two to the seat, and we have to go in and out at the same time. It’s teamwork,” Schumacher said. <\/p>\n

The team also serves the community by supporting women currently battling cancer. <\/p>\n

“It could be financial. It could be taking them somewhere. It could be just having them right on the boat,” Schumacher said. <\/p>\n

On the water, the team inspires others by showing what life can look like after cancer. <\/p>\n

“We have our youngest at 40, which was diagnosed beforehand, which is really early, and then we have a 79-year-old who went to France,” Schumacher said. <\/p>\n

The team recently returned from an international competition in France. <\/p>\n

“There was a sea of pink, but there was a sisterhood that you just felt the energy and the love. I think we broke into tears several times,” Schumacher said. “And then we ended up 17 out of 145 teams.” <\/p>\n

When asked what advice she would give to women currently battling cancer, Davis shared a message of hope. <\/p>\n

“Don’t give up. Keep going, keep fighting. And you have a family. Maybe, you just haven’t found it yet,” she said. <\/p>\n

Another team member reflected on the beauty and support they\u2019ve found through rowing. <\/p>\n

“You push away and you are in a zone of splendor, beauty. We see sunsets when we get off the water. I mean, there are a few of us that ones that sit close to me. We go, what a gift. So not what we would want to do. But now that we’re in that boat, literally, it’s the best way to have a support team and sisterhood,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the sun set over Lake Fairview in Orlando, a group of breast cancer survivors gathered to row…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[27764,168584,145885,1089,168585,1210,18917,139,141,140,168587,35259,168586,5056,11273,4103,168588,192],"class_list":["post-429039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-beauty","tag-beth-schumacher","tag-breast-cancer-survivor","tag-family","tag-jamie-davis","tag-life","tag-member","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-rowing-team","tag-round","tag-sisterhood","tag-strength","tag-team","tag-water","tag-water-dragon-boat-team","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}