PHILADELPHIA \u2014 It was Valentine\u2019s Day 2022 when Shannan McConnell found a rash near her neck that felt like a lump. Then, everything went awry. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and quickly began her treatment.<\/p>\n
There wasn\u2019t much time to process what was happening to her, she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people say that when you\u2019re going through the treatment, you\u2019re just doing what you\u2019re told and you just keep going,\u201d said McConnell, age 46, from Media. \u201cThen when you\u2019re left alone, you\u2019re like, someone has to tell me that really happened, it was so far out. \u2026 Will I ever be the same, will I ever be strong, will I ever have adventures?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 10 years of medication that changes your whole life, monthly injections, it\u2019s ongoing. It kind of feels a little more daunting afterward.\u201d<\/p>\n
McConnell is no longer in active treatment, and even though her doctors have told her, \u201cyou\u2019re cancer free \u2014 you can put this behind you,\u201d she can\u2019t. Many cancer survivors can\u2019t, she says. However, for the past three years, McConnell has found an outlet that has given her strength and community. It\u2019s paddling in a boat with a group of women.<\/p>\n
WeCanRow-Philadelphia is a rowing program through Whitemarsh Boat Club for breast cancer survivors. The Philly chapter is supported through the Survivor Rowing Network, which has more than 30 participating programs around the nation. It came to Philly in 2018 and currently has 46 members.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeCanRow is everything about community, about mentoring, about encouraging, about connection, about hope,\u201d said Susan Ryan, 61, of Eagleville. \u201cIt\u2019s the on-water support group that isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the program focuses on mental and physical healing for those treated for breast cancer, the participants are competitors, too. They\u2019ve raced twice at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston and won both exhibition survivor events in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n
Now, they\u2019re taking their oars across seas.<\/p>\n
From July 10 to 12, Whitemarsh Boat Club will have three boats compete at the Henley Masters Regatta in Henley-on-Thames, England. Members of WeCanRow-Philly will take part in an exhibition women\u2019s coxed four. McConnell, Ryan, Jill Hunt, Bonnie Martin and coxswain Marie Leonard will fill the exhibition boat.<\/p>\n
This will be the regatta\u2019s first dedicated cancer survivor rowing event and marks a significant milestone as the first major event in the United Kingdom to welcome cancer survivor crews. It will run as a trial, with the hopes of becoming a permanent fixture.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we meet these other survivors, there\u2019s a connection,\u201d said Martin, 61, of Lumberton, Burlington County. \u201cIt\u2019s just great to have these connection points really all over the world, all over the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone would have told me six and a half years ago, when I was in treatment, that I\u2019d be rowing like this, I would have never believed it. I feel like I\u2019m an athlete, which I was never part of any organized sports before. It\u2019s just been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two other boats are men\u2019s and women\u2019s quad. Both will race in the Master\u2019s E class.<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s quad is made up of all cancer survivors, featuring Emily Nelson, Karen Pinkstone, Kathy Reape and Rebecca Choo Quan, while the men\u2019s includes two cancer survivors from Whitemarsh, Jason Beck and Jim Nice.<\/p>\n
The program, which runs out of Hines Rowing Center in Conshohocken, runs from April till September, every Monday evening. Then in October, practices are held on Saturday mornings.<\/p>\n
Since finding out in May that they would be rowing at Henley, the crew bumped those practices to three times a week. Volunteer coach Matt Sidlowski, who\u2019s a senior studying graphic design at West Chester, has been preparing the group for the upcoming regatta. He\u2019s been involved with WeCanRow-Philly for the past three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are so eager to row, so eager to get out there and spend their time working toward improvement,\u201d Sidlowski said. \u201cIt makes it easy to show up. I have the power as a coach to give them access to a practice plan, training schedules, equipment, water time, feedback. \u2026 It really is motivating for me to see them achieve things they never thought they could.\u201d<\/p>\n
WeCanRow-Philly has brought together women from all over the area since Whitemarsh Boat Club is the only local boathouse offering cancer survivor rowing.<\/p>\n
Pinkstone, 56, travels about an hour from her home in Yardley to Montgomery County to row. But the drive is well worth it, she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an entire evening,\u201d she added. \u201cYou\u2019re working all day and then you\u2019re going to practice. My family is supportive because they see how happy this makes me and how important it is to me. \u2026 I\u2019m a better teacher, a better mom, a better wife, a better person, because I\u2019m taking care of myself, and this is a big part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group hopes to see more survivor rowing programs and events. To participate at such a prestigious regatta, though, is a start.<\/p>\n
Beyond the sisterhood, rowing is about working together to be in sync \u2014 even when the odds feel against you.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can still pull hard in an unset boat, it doesn\u2019t have to be perfect,\u201d said Nelson, 56, of Villanova. \u201cYou can still put in 1,000 percent effort, even though the conditions are terrible, and I think about that a lot in the boat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not set, that\u2019s not a reason to stop rowing, it\u2019s not a reason to make excuses. Just go out there, do your best, no matter what\u2019s going on. And that\u2019s true on land, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 It was Valentine\u2019s Day 2022 when Shannan McConnell found a rash near her neck that felt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6362,9328,42354,102882,28,30,29,10095],"class_list":["post-239234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-breast-cancer","tag-cancer","tag-health-and-wellness","tag-medical-conditions-and-diseases","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}