加载中…通过运动抗击疾病
(2014-03-31 14:11:33)
标签：
杂谈 |
分类： 社会与生活 |
在加利福尼亚州安扎（Anza），一名越野摩托车手正在参加防治乳腺癌摩托车赛（Ride for the Cause）。
去年十月份的一天，在加利福尼亚州安萨（Anza, California）附近，10名年轻的女运动员在泥土赛车道上紧握越野摩托车手把、油门大开地呼啸飞驰。车手们在赛道转弯处急速地腾空而起，随后重重地落在直道上，纵跃的力量是如此强劲，让她们能在空中距地面4层楼高处飞行27米。
组织这场比赛的劳里·卡里（Laurie Cary）说：“我说她们在飞可不是夸大其词。这些女车手都是职业高手，她们真正展示了一场精彩的表演。”
她说的表演指的是第七届年度防治乳腺癌越野摩托车赛（Motocross Ride for the Cause），这项高强度的活动承载的是一项令人沉重的使命。每年，成千上万的人被诊断出患有乳腺癌，据美国疾病控制和预防中心（U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention）介绍，这是最常见的一种危害女性的癌症。在过去几年里，卡里的活动已筹集到超过150,000美元的资金，用以帮助女性接受乳腺透视检查、就诊，以及帮助她们应对这种危及生命的疾病。
在十月的那天，骑手们可能穿着孩子气的粉红色芭蕾舞短裙，在比赛装外戴着艳丽的胸罩，但她们中有些人刚从难熬的治疗中康复，还有一些人则在纪念被癌症夺走的亲人。
美国——以及全世界——各地很多喜欢冒险及热爱运动的女性组织了自己的团体和活动，旨在支持乳腺癌研究或帮助患者通过令人刺激的户外运动获得支持和信心。每个团体的操作方式各异，但理念却始终不变：将人们团结在一项事业周围并让她们有机会做些新鲜和令人振奋的事情。
位于华盛顿（Washington）的WeCanRow DC（我们能划船）是一家俱乐部，它将乳腺癌幸存者召集起来，教她们在波托马克河（Potomac River）上进行快艇（sleek boats）比赛。该俱乐部的三位创办人之一多丽丝·帕克（Doris Parker）说：“当我被诊断出乳腺癌时，我感到似乎是我的身体背叛了我。赛艇让我重新信任自己的身体，走出去并生活下去。它还是一项团体运动，所以赛艇就像一个水上互助团队。我们大家名符其实地同舟共济。”
据帕克介绍，越来越多的研究表明，锻炼可能有助于身体组织在乳腺癌治疗过程中被切割或伤害后逐渐复原。理疗师推荐的一些刺激康复的运动与飞钓时抛投钓饵所用的轻柔而有节奏的动作类似。出于这个原因，一位乳房整形外科医生在1996年为幸存者创设了一个名为抛钓康复（Casting for Recovery）的飞钓项目。该组织的主管惠特尼·米尔霍安（Whitney Milhoan）介绍说，这些活动对心理健康也有好处。
她说：“谨记要有耐心并将注意力集中在此时此刻——就像在钓鱼时一样，是康复过程中的一个重要环节。”
在周末活动期间，参与者们了解了昆虫的生命周期、制作钓饵的知识以及最后如何抛投钓饵，以期能从蒙大拿州（Montana）的溪流中钓到割喉鳟或从得克萨斯州（Texas）的池塘里钓到小嘴鲈鱼。
去年，600多位女性参加了在32个州举办的集训营。米尔霍安说，她们以前几乎没人用过飞钓竿。飞钓通常是一项以男性为主的运动，很多美国女性对它并不了解。米尔霍安说：“我们希望女性有机会在户外一个安全环境中挑战自我，这是一个让她们获得一种集体观念的新渠道。”
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大声直言
乳腺癌患者打破障碍的勇气远远不止于运动领域。沙特阿拉伯的萨米亚·阿穆迪（Samia Al-Amoudi）医生在2006年被诊断出患有乳腺癌。她在2011年拍摄的一段接受西雅图（Seattle）乳房健康全球行动计划（Breast Health Global Initiative）的采访中谈到沙特阿拉伯的文化：“乳腺癌被视为禁忌。因为没有人谈论这个话题，幸存者并不为人所知 。”
但是，她却反其道而行之。阿穆迪是位于吉达（Jeddah）的谢赫·穆罕默德·阿穆迪乳腺癌治疗卓越中心（Sheikh Mohammed H. Al-Amoudi Center of Excellence in Breast Cancer）的创始人及现任首席执行官，这所机构极大地增进了沙特阿拉伯乳腺癌患者所迫切需要的关怀和支持。2007年3月，美国国务院（U.S. Department of State）因为她为提高沙特阿拉伯和中东地区对乳腺癌的认识所做的工作而授予她首届国际妇女勇气奖（International Women of Courage Award）。
乳腺癌幸存者萨米亚•阿穆迪医生
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为生存浅水冲浪（Skim 2 Live）
从事防治乳腺癌事业的户外运动团体不仅仅以女性为对象。2010年，约有2,000名男性死于这种疾病。很多男性也为研究筹集资金或为幸存者提供帮助。例如，22岁的凯里·赛勒（Carey Seyler）已为休斯敦（Houston）的防治乳腺癌非营利组织“玫瑰”（Rose）筹集到约30,000美元。他通过浅水冲浪比赛筹集资金。在比赛中，选手奔跑一段距离，然后跳上薄薄的无翼冲浪板——或称浅水冲浪板，在非常浅的水面滑行一段距离——水浅到不足1英寸。对冲浪选手的评分基于他们所表现的技巧——正如对滑板选手的评分一样。9岁时母亲因乳腺癌去世的赛勒说：“我们热爱浅水滑板，所以就举办了这个比赛。”
这类比赛最酷的特点是什么呢？所有浅水冲浪活动的组办者都是仍在上中学的青少年。
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根除乳腺癌
苏珊•米利根（Susan Milligan）
国会（Congress）女议员在政策上不总是意见一致，但是在帮助被诊断出患有乳腺癌的人的问题上，所有女性都属于同一个阵营。
自2009年起，每年夏天众议院（House of Representatives）和参议院（Senate）的女议员——民主党人（Democrats）和共和党人（Republicans）——都要与传媒界的妇女们打一场垒球比赛。门票收入赠予为乳腺癌患者提供支持的年轻幸存者联盟（Young Survival Coalition）。该项比赛由本人就是乳腺癌幸存者的众议员戴比·沃瑟曼·舒尔茨（Debbie Wasserman Schultz）发起。比赛不仅为慈善机构筹集资金，而且帮助议员们加深相互的个人了解。两个政党的女性都说这项活动能激励她们在国会中更好地合作共事。
民主党参议员珍妮·沙欣（Jeanne Shaheen）来自新罕布什尔州（New Hampshire）——美国唯一一个国会代表全部由女性组成的州，她说：“这个活动是我们做得不够好的社交活动之一，而且它是为了一项高尚的事业。”西弗吉尼亚州（West Virginia）的共和党众议员谢利·穆尔·卡皮托（Shelley Moore Capito）表示，在同一支队伍中打球“建立了那些我们都知道在国会山（Capitol Hill）很缺乏的关系”。
而且球员们对比赛很投入。她们在初春开始练习：每周练习两次，早上7点就开始，并随着比赛日期的临近增加至每周三次。有些球员早早就到场，绕场跑步。她们还请了教练，进行防守训练和击球训练。
在2013年的比赛中，女议员队一直领先，直到第六局，但媒体队反败为胜，连得几分以11比8赢得比赛。
不过，她们的辛苦付出得到了另一种更重要的回报：在短短几个小时内，她们就为年轻幸存者联盟筹得125,000美元。
Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/chinese/publication/2014/03/20140321296681.html#ixzz2xWBaN54x
Survival by Sports
By Tim Neville | | 31 December 2013
A motocross biker at Ride for the Cause in Anza, California.
One day last October near Anza, California, a throaty roar split the air as 10 young, athletic women twisted the throttles on their motocross bikes that screamed along a dirt racetrack. The drivers zoomed around the corners, blasted down the straightaways and hit jumps so hard they flew for 27 meters through the air, four stories off the ground.
“When I say they were flying, I’m not exaggerating,” said Laurie Cary, who organized the race. “These women are pros, and they really put on a good show.”
The show in this case was the seventh annual Motocross Ride for the Cause, a high-octane event with a sober mission. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are diagnosed with breast cancer — the most common type of cancer affecting women, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over several years, Cary’s event has raised more than $150,000 to help women get mammograms, see doctors and otherwise navigate their way through a life-threatening experience.
Her riders that day in October may have been wearing silly pink tutus and garish bras on the wrong side of their racing suits, but some of them were recovering from difficult treatments and others were honoring loved ones who had lost their lives to cancer.
Scores of adventurous, athletic women across the United States — and the world — have created their own groups and events to support breast cancer research or to help victims find support and confidence through thrilling outdoor sports. The formula for each group varies, but the idea is always the same: Rally people around a cause and give them something new and exciting to do.
“When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I felt like my body had betrayed me,” said Doris Parker, one of three founders of WeCanRow DC, a Washington-based club that brings breast cancer survivors together to teach them to race sleek boats on the Potomac River. “Rowing was a way for me to believe in my body again, to get me out and moving. It’s a team sport too, so rowing is like a support group on the water. You’re all in the same boat, literally.”
According to Parker, a growing body of research shows that exercise may help tissues heal after they’ve been cut or damaged during breast cancer treatments. Some of the movements that physical therapists recommend to stimulate recovery are similar to the soft, rhythmic motions used to cast a lure in fly-fishing. For that reason, a reconstructive breast surgeon started Casting for Recovery, a fly-fishing program for survivors, in 1996. The benefits are also mental, said Whitney Milhoan, the group’s director.
“Just being reminded to have patience and to focus on the moment, like in fishing, is an important part of recovery,” she said.
During the weekend event, participants learn about insect life cycles, the ins and outs of tying lures and ultimately how to cast them in hopes of landing a cutthroat trout from a Montana stream or a smallmouth bass in a Texas pond.
Last year, more than 600 women attended the camps in 32 states. Virtually none of them had ever used a fly rod before, Milhoan said. Fly-fishing tends to be a male-dominated sport, and many American women have not been introduced to it. “We want women to be given the opportunity to challenge themselves in a safe environment in the outdoors,” Milhoan said. “It's a new outlet that gives them a sense of community.”
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Speaking Out
Courage among breast cancer patients to break barriers extends far beyond the realm of sports. In Saudi Arabia, Dr. Samia Al-Amoudi was diagnosed in 2006 with breast cancer. “Breast cancer is considered a taboo,” she said of Saudi culture in an interview with the Seattle-based Breast Health Global Initiative filmed in 2011. “Survivors aren’t known because nobody talks about it.”
Breast cancer survivor Dr. Samia Al-Amoudi.
“Being a physician myself, and being a patient, I felt it was a responsibility and my duty to break the silence,” she said. “I didn’t want to see a woman suffering the way I did.”
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Skim 2 Live
Sporty outdoor groups that have taken up the cause of breast cancer don’t just cater to women. In 2010, about 2,000 men died of the disease. Many men also raise money for research or help for survivors. Twenty-two-year-old Carey Seyler, for instance, has raised about $30,000 for The Rose, a nonprofit breast cancer organization in Houston. He does it through skim boarding competitions, where contestants run and then hop onto thin, finless surfboards, or skimboards, that hydroplane across stretches of water so shallow that they are often less than an inch deep. Riders are judged on how well they can perform tricks just as a skateboarder might. “We love skim boarding so we just made it happen,” said Seyler, whose mother died from breast cancer when he was 9 years old.
The coolest part? All Skim 2 Live events are run by teens still in secondary school.
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Batting Away Breast Cancer
Female members of Congress don’t always agree on policy, but when it comes to helping people diagnosed with breast cancer, the women are all on the same team.
Every summer since 2009, women of the House of Representatives and the Senate — Democrats and Republicans alike — have played a softball game against women in the media. Proceeds from ticket sales go to the Young Survival Coalition, which supports breast cancer patients. Started by Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, herself a breast cancer survivor, the game not only raises cash for charity, but helps the lawmakers get to know each other on a more personal level. Women in both political parties said it has spurred them to work together more cooperatively in Congress.
“It’s one of those social events we don’t do enough of here, and it’s for a good cause,” said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, the only state in the nation with an all-female congressional delegation. According to Representative Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican, playing on the same team “forges the relationships we all know are lacking” on Capitol Hill.
And the players are dedicated to the game. They start practicing in early spring: twice a week practices as early as 7 a.m., moving up to three times weekly as game day gets close. Some players show up early to run laps around the field. They have coaches, fielding drills and hitting drills.
In 2013, the congresswomen led until the sixth inning, but the press corps rallied to score several runs and won the game, 11-8.
The hard work paid off in a more important way, though: In just a few hours, they raised $125,000 for the Young Survival Coalition.
Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/publication/2013/12/20131223289434.html#ixzz2xWBgVj9n
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