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Cancer survivors row to wellness
Members of WeCanRow work out on indoor rowing machines—called ergometers or “ergs”—in the basement of Alumni Arena. Photo: DOUGLAS LEVERE
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WeCanRow helps female cancer survivors rebuild their strength and self-image. View video.
Rock music blasts from a stereo, adding to the clamor in a basement room in Alumni Arena where giant fans whir, propellers turning to keep the space cool. More than a dozen women of all ages—all cancer survivors—slide backward and forward on indoor rowing machines, pulling, with all their strength, on handlebars that mimic oars.
Athletes and coaches from UB’s rowing team are making rounds, doling out praise and giving instruction on proper posture and how to move.
This is a session of WeCanRow-Buffalo, N.Y., a rowing program UB alumna Lisa DeMarco founded in 2009 to help female cancer survivors build their strength and self-image.
The group, a regional chapter of the national program of the same name, leverages UB’s strengths in athletics and public health to empower and promote healthy living among participants.
To begin, students in the Department of Rehabilitation Science, with guidance from Juli Wylegala, a clinical assistant professor, screened each WeCanRow-Buffalo member, identifying each individual’s limitations in strength, motion and flexibility, and providing information on how to get in better shape while avoiding injuries.
During the winter, members of the women’s rowing team volunteered each Tuesday and Thursday evening, leading hour-long workout sessions on indoor rowing machines—ergometers, or “ergs”—in Alumni Arena. This spring, the survivors will train in tank facilities that mimic conditions on the water before heading out to row in real boats. Racing is likely.
The idea for creating WeCanRow-Buffalo originated from casual conversations between DeMarco, BS ’90, an avid sailor, and Lisa Wind, a friend and dragon boat paddler. Both had suffered breast cancer, and the two discussed how fun it would be to row with fellow survivors. Before long, WeCanRow-Buffalo was born, a product, in part, of the women’s contagious zeal.
“(DeMarco’s) e-mails alone sort of overflowed with enthusiasm,” says Wylegala, whose mother had breast cancer. “When I met her in person for the first time, it was just like, ‘How could I not be part of this?’”
DeMarco calls UB “the piece of the puzzle that made this whole thing work.” Members of the UB community whom she contacted, including Rudy Wieler, head coach of the rowing team, and Sharon Sanford, assistant athletic director, offered immediate support for her ideas.
“Our athletics department is committed to reaching out to the community and promoting healthy living through exercise and nutrition,” Sanford says. “And this is a great way to offer an opportunity for cancer survivors to utilize rowing, which we’re very proud of, as a tool for their continued development and progress in survivorship. And also, it gives our student-athletes an opportunity to give back with something that they love, which is rowing.”
Today, WeCanRow-Buffalo members range from women who have no experiences in rowing to Sally Munschauer, a cancer survivor in her 80s who has rowed for about two decades.
The program meets each participant’s needs in a unique manner. DeMarco, who takes part in the exercises, says the training seems to reduce swelling in the arms that she experiences as a result of a surgery she underwent.
Personal attention from Wylegala and her students can provide a sense of stability and direction to women who have just completed intensive cancer treatments—women who, for the first time since their diagnosis, are no longer meeting frequently with doctors and other caregivers.
“It’s wonderful so far,” says Ellen McGrath, MLS ’83, head of cataloging at UB’s Charles B. Sears Law Library and a WeCanRow member. “It’s, I would say, more than I expected it to be. I knew there would be involvement of the UB coaching staff and the physical therapy department, but the enthusiasm that those participants have brought to it has just blown me away, and meeting the other women and having an intense workout like that makes it just a wonderful experience on a physical and a mental and emotional level.
“In terms of recurrence of breast cancer,” adds McGrath, who battled the disease in 2005, “physical exercise and keeping fit is one of the things I feel I can do to prevent that recurrence.”
Volunteers from UB benefit from WeCanRow, too. Elizabeth Ostermeier, assistant women’s rowing coach, says she hopes the survivors’ stories—their perseverance and tenacity—will help her students grow stronger and face their own challenges with courage and dignity.
Danielle Carlino, a freshman rower whose mother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, is one of many athletes already drawing inspiration from the stories of the women of WeCanRow.
“They are determined and willing to get back into shape and be fit and continue on with their lives after such a huge milestone,” Carlino says.
“I can’t wait,” she adds, “until they actually get to go on the water on a boat because every day they’re learning something new, something exciting.”
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