Steel City Dragons<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201c’Cause a lot of times you kind of want to scream when things are going on. And so instead of screaming, you get on that boat, and you work your butt off,\u201d said Radacosky.<\/p>\n
Rain or shine, the team trains together. <\/p>\n
\u201cI mean there are times we’re out here when it’s 95 degrees and 95% humidity, and it’s dripping, you know? And then there’s times when it’s 47, and it’s raining, and the water’s dripping in your eyes, you know, from the rain,\u201d Radacosky said. <\/p>\n
Radacosky, who picked up paddles four years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, I’ve lived in Pittsburgh my entire life, and we don’t use our waterways as much as we should, so it was wonderful to have an opportunity to get out on the water,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t the rivers or a love of exercise that brought Radacosky and her teammates to the Steel City Dragons… It was cancer. <\/p>\n
\u201cI remember saying to my kids when I first found out, \u2018Don’t worry, this is not going to take me out.\u2019 Well, I had no idea what I had. I had no idea what my journey would be,\u201d said Radacosky, who was diagnosed after a routine mammogram. <\/p>\n
\u201cCouldn’t feel anything, you know, unusual. Went for it, was called back for, you know, reimaging,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
After multiple biopsies, Radacosky met her surgeon and made her priorities clear. <\/p>\n
\u201cI remember walking in and saying two things to her. One, I’m entering the third trimester of my life. You need to do whatever you can to get me to the end of that third trimester. I was 61 at the time,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I also said my first grandbaby is due in Seattle in six months. So whatever we can do to make sure I can make it out there, I would appreciate it,\u201d Radacosky added. <\/p>\n
In October 2022, she underwent a lumpectomy, a surgery that has revolutionized breast cancer treatment thanks to clinical trials launched in the 1970s by Dr. Bernard Fisher in Pittsburgh. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s changed so many lives. If I had had this 30 years ago, they would have done a radical mastectomy on me, taking things all the way down to the rib cage, all the lymph nodes out. And I wouldn’t have been able to lift more than 10 pounds for the rest of my life,\u201d Radacosky said. <\/p>\n
Six months later, she was in Seattle, lifting her first grandchild for the first time. <\/p>\n
Then, she returned to Pittsburgh to rejoin her dragon boating family, which includes the \u201cPittsburgh Unity\u201d team of cancer survivors and the \u201cPink Steel\u201d team, representing breast cancer survivors and those in active treatment. There is also a mixed team of both men and women.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless you’ve been told that you have cancer, you don’t understand it,\u201d Radacosky said. <\/p>\n
In these boats, there\u2019s a shared bond and resiliency. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the best non-support, support group that, you know, that I\u2019ve ever participated in,\u201d said Naomi Herman, a member of the Steel City Dragons. <\/p>\n
Herman, 81, has been paddling for 18 years. She started after her own breast cancer diagnosis. <\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a part of the community is phenomenal. And we can also be role models for our team, but also for our families. I have a big family, 18 grandchildren. And so it’s all a win-win. Yeah, you get sore. Yeah, you have to learn the stroke. But yeah, it’s just an amazing opportunity,\u201d Herman said. <\/p>\n
The team\u2019s connections extend beyond Pittsburgh. In August, Radacosky competed with a team from Charlotte, North Carolina, at the Cleveland Dragon Boat Festival, where they took home the gold. <\/p>\n
That same weekend, Sonia \u201cCrash\u201d Rogers, another Steel City Dragons member, competed at the International Breast Cancer Paddler\u2019s Commission Festival in the French Alps. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like the Olympics of breast cancer survivors,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cIt\u2019s about 6 to 8 boats at a race at a time.”<\/p>\n
Together, these survivors celebrate victories on the water and hope for victories after each MRI or mammogram. <\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026And you always do feel like it\u2019s sitting on your shoulder waiting to tap you again,\u201d Radacosky said. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a fear she knew long before her own diagnosis. Her best friend Kathy lost a 10-year battle with breast cancer in 2008 at the age of 46. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019d tell me to kick. You know what? I\u2019m not going to say. ‘Keep kicking it in, Mare,’\u201d Radacosky said. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe was a very feisty, strong woman. And I think she would maybe, if she had survived, she might have introduced me to this. Yeah, but\u2026\u201d Radacosky trailed off, shaking her head. <\/p>\n
Now 65, Radacosky recently passed another milestone… four years as a breast cancer survivor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh women bond through dragon boating after life-altering diagnoses PITTSBURGH \u2014 A team of women in Pittsburgh has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[22823,6362,118310,118314,117992,73398,118311,118313,71940,118303,38891,118312,118309,118315,118304,118305,118307,73,118316,75,74,118308,38083,111781,118306,8218,118302,11621,13987,526,15273,2867,78],"class_list":["post-283624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-allegheny-river","tag-breast-cancer","tag-breast-cancer-survivor","tag-breast-cancer-treatment","tag-cancer-survivors","tag-charlotte-north-carolina","tag-cleveland-dragon-boat-festival","tag-dr-bernard-fisher","tag-dragon-boat","tag-dragon-boating","tag-entire-life","tag-french-alps","tag-lumpectomy","tag-mammogram","tag-mary-radacosky","tag-naomi-herman","tag-pink-steel","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-breast-cancer-survivor","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-unity","tag-pittsburgh-woman","tag-routine-mammogram","tag-sonia-rogers","tag-sport","tag-steel-city-dragons","tag-team","tag-thing","tag-time","tag-victory","tag-water","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283624","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=283624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Kalea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789116371_868_b4b63f68-33d8-4f90-870e-aa6060f8ddaa_1780432158.file.png\")
<\/a>PITTSBURGH \u2014<\/p>\n