Breast cancer survivors from Whitemarsh Boat Club are rowing like ‘an athlete’

It was Valentine’s 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.

There wasn’t much time to process what was happening to her, she says.

“A lot of people say that when you’re going through the treatment, you’re just doing what you’re told and you just keep going,” said McConnell, age 46, from Media. “Then when you’re left alone, you’re like, someone has to tell me that really happened, it was so far out. … Will I ever be the same, will I ever be strong, will I ever have adventures?

“We have 10 years of medication that changes your whole life, monthly injections, it’s ongoing. It kind of feels a little more daunting afterward.”

McConnell is no longer in active treatment, and even though her doctors have told her, “you’re cancer free — you can put this behind you,” she can’t. Many cancer survivors can’t, she says. However, for the past three years, McConnell has found an outlet that has given her strength and community. It’s paddling in a boat with a group of women.

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.

“WeCanRow is everything about community, about mentoring, about encouraging, about connection, about hope,” said Susan Ryan, 61, of Eagleville. “It’s the on-water support group that isn’t.”

While the program focuses on mental and physical healing for those treated for breast cancer, the participants are competitors, too. They’ve raced twice at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston and won both exhibition survivor events in 2024 and 2025.

Now, they’re taking their oars across seas.

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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’s coxed four. McConnell, Ryan, Jill Hunt, Bonnie Martin, and coxswain Marie Leonard will fill the exhibition boat.

This will be the regatta’s 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.

“When we meet these other survivors, there’s a connection,” said Martin, 61, of Lumberton, Burlington County. “It’s just great to have these connection points really all over the world, all over the country.

“If someone would have told me six and a half years ago, when I was in treatment, that I’d be rowing like this, I would have never believed it. I feel like I’m an athlete, which I was never part of any organized sports before. It’s just been amazing.”

The two other boats are men’s and women’s quad. Both will race in the Master’s E class.

The women’s quad is made up of all breast cancer survivors, featuring Emily Nelson, Karen Pinkstone, Kathy Reape, and Rebecca Choo Quan, while the men’s includes two cancer survivors from Whitemarsh, Jason Beck and Jim Nice.

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.

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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’s a senior studying graphic design at West Chester, has been preparing the group for the upcoming regatta. He’s been involved with WeCanRow-Philly for the past three years.

“They are so eager to row, so eager to get out there and spend their time working toward improvement,” Sidlowski said. “It 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. … It really is motivating for me to see them achieve things they never thought they could.”

WeCanRow-Philly has brought together women from all over the area since Whitemarsh Boat Club is the only local boathouse offering cancer survivor rowing.

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.

“It’s an entire evening,” she added. “You’re working all day and then you’re going to practice. My family is supportive because they see how happy this makes me and how important it is to me. … I’m a better teacher, a better mom, a better wife, a better person, because I’m taking care of myself, and this is a big part of it.”

The group hopes to see more survivor rowing programs and events. To participate at such a prestigious regatta, though, is a start.

Beyond the sisterhood, rowing is about working together to be in sync — even when the odds feel against you.

“You can still pull hard in an unset boat, it doesn’t have to be perfect,” said Nelson, 56, of Villanova. “You can still put in 1,000 percent effort, even though the conditions are terrible, and I think about that a lot in the boat.

“It’s not set, that’s not a reason to stop rowing, it’s not a reason to make excuses. Just go out there, do your best, no matter what’s going on. And that’s true on land, too.”