Awards For All grant for Worcester Dragons

The Big Lottery Fund have awarded Worcester Dragon Boat Racing Club close to the maximum grant under their Awards For All scheme. The grant will support the club's initiative to establish the second Breast Cancer Survivors dragon boat team in Britain following the success of Pool of Life in Liverpool.

The physical activity involved in single blade paddling has been shown by research to be beneficial to the recovery from Breast Cancer treatment and club member Sue Shackleton has been recruiting survivors and supporters for the team.

In addition, the grant will support community paddling across all age groups and abilities, particularly small groups with fewer paddlers across Worcester, with the provision of new light weight equipment that will ease river access. The club have collected a new boat ready for their regatta on September 2nd. The boat will be manufactured to minimum regulation weight and will be equipped throughout with hand grips to ease launch and recovery.

In addition the club will purchase two O1 training boats for individual coaching and full racing kit for the crew when they attend events across the country. The grant will also fund improved loading facilities for boat loading at the RNIB steps. Race the Dragon Regatta has attracted entries from several community youth groups and the addition of the new facilities will improve the safety of access to the water for these and hundreds of others of all ages and abilities from the local community. We will be using the new boat during preparations for Race the Dragon on September 2nd and at it's formal launch on that day.