They are a team but they are family. They are not united by blood or documents signed before a court, but by the desire to live and to overcome small challenges and barriers little by little. The Vallkirias Pisuerga Association is a refuge where women who have suffered or are suffering from cancer row for physical and mental improvement. This year they are the heralds of the Fair and Festivities of the Virgen de San Lorenzo and the president and founder, Nachi García, assures that it is an “honour and a pride” for them to have this possibility because they see it as a recognition of three years of work. Although she also knows that it is a responsibility. Without going into details, there will be several women from this group who will herald the beginning of these eight days of festivities from the balcony of the City Hall. They will thank the city for the opportunity, explain who they are and promise not to drag on.
Vallkirias Pisuerga started without the boat that now distinguishes them from the rest of the rowers and with which they are winning competitions without stopping. The last one was the weekend of August 17 and 18, when they won the gold and silver medals in the Spanish Dragon Boat Championship of 200 and 500 meters. The beginnings of the association date back to February 2022 and since then it has not stopped growing. “We are even overwhelmed to see everything we have achieved in such a short time,” says García. She was the founder of the entity and has seen how they have gone from being seven and rowing in a canoe to being all together in a dragon boat with more than 50.
The president of Vallkirias Pisuerga assures that when you have breast cancer, even if you have overcome it, you always have the disease in mind. You go to check-ups with concern and even fear. And there are members of the association who are receiving chemotherapy and have not yet overcome the disease. “We changed the chip of life. You no longer plan the distant future, but you live day by day. I was never one to plan the future much, but now I think more about today for tomorrow.” And the good thing about this association is that they have all been there. It is not necessary to talk about cancer. They don’t do it most of the time. But they understand how they feel or how they are physically if the day is complicated.
The festivities are lived differently after suffering from such an illness. “Being able to help these people who are suffering from it, because you have experienced it first-hand and you have been a bit in a hole, when you start to get your head out, you value all the moments you are living much more. It is another opportunity that you have been given. You can continue living and being with your family, so it is important to look at it like that. It is a second chance at life,” she says. And you don’t have to be constantly thinking about cancer or talking about it. At these San Lorenzo fairs and festivities, the team will share activities with each other and with the city. They will participate in the Guinness record and will be with the clubs doing a choreography as well.
More than sport
Vallkirias Pisuerga came about when García realised that after the operation, the whole area of the surgery was contracted and she had to go to the physiotherapist to recover. This specialist recommended a book of exercises. He explains that once you have the operation and the medical treatment is finished, there is no more, but the body has a series of after-effects. In that book she saw the dragon boat modality and its benefits. She searched on the internet and realised that it was all over the world. That’s where the idea came from and she called some acquaintances who had gone through breast cancer to explain her project to them. At first they didn’t believe she could succeed, but she started looking for canoeing clubs and the first one to take her in was the Cisne club.
They started out in a canoe with polystyrene seats and paddles of different heights. “We were happy to go out on the river even though we had no means.” Over the months they managed to get support in the form of sponsors and acquired a dragon boat. García says that she had a lot of help from her husband in this process because he looked for people who would help them “even under the rocks.” In September 2022 they already had the boat, but they needed a space to store it and it had to be large due to the dimensions of the boat. Finally they got a space in the Narciso Suárez canoeing center and even got Narciso Suárez himself, an Olympic canoeist, to train them.
At the beginning they were formed as an association, but later they created their own club to have their own name: Vallkirias Pisuerga. This discipline that they practice benefits the entire upper torso. All the affected muscles are moved, it prevents lymphedema, improves circulation… But it also helps on a psychological level. “You are in contact with nature and you forget about everything because you have to be aware of the person who is with you,” explains García. This repetitive movement of rowing is either done at the same time or the boat slows down, so throughout the training they flow with the boat. “We have a very positive energy and when someone comes, we put the drum on so they can see how to row, and if they like what we do, they stay.” In addition, it is not necessary to be an athlete or have done sports. “We have never rowed,” says the president of the association, who indicates that they also go to the gym together, especially in winter because in bad weather there is less going out on the water.
But they were not satisfied with this and decided to compete. On September 8, the boat arrived and they had their first competition ten days later. They barely had time to train with it. “The competition is a motivation. You are going to surpass yourself and make a little more effort because you have a goal, because beyond going out for a ride, you have goals.” That is why they started participating in competitions and the first time they participated in one, they were finalists. Now they are champions. “All this motivates you. We want to overcome barriers, go a step further and set ourselves challenges and new goals.”
