NORTHAMPTON — The words “fun” and “meditation” may seem like conflicting or dissonant experiences, but according to breast cancer survivors Andrea Kandel and Rachel Levey, dragon boating can be both.

Kandel and Levey are members of Paradise City’s Dragon Boating team — a group of 47 cancer survivors who use dragon boating as a means of developing confidence and physical strength. The group meets biweekly along the Connecticut River and occasionally competes.

While the group’s season on the river has come to an end, its members are holding a fundraising concert on Sunday, Oct. 13, in the middle of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Dragon boating as a sport has an over 2,000-year history in South China, dating back even earlier in ancient Greece to the games of Olympia. The sport made a comeback in the 1970s as a leisure activity.

Then in 1996 Don McKenzie, a Canadian sports medicine researcher, hypothesized that breast cancer survivors, who are advised to avoid strenuous upper body activities since it can lead to lymphedema, would benefit from the sport. Today there are about 16,000 breast cancer survivors on dragon boating teams worldwide.

One of these competitors is “Baby Rachael,” as Levey is known on the Paradise City Dragon Boat team, who was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 29.

Despite there being a lot of amazing cancer support, she explained that so much is catered to “the older crowd.”

“They looked at me like a kid,” she said, speaking of the way she lost enthusiasm to seek support. After hesitating to dragon boat, she joined Paradise City Dragon Boating in 2019 after her mom pestered her into do so.

Kandel, who met Levey through the team, had her own excuses to not try the activity. The 65 year old rebelled from invitations saying, “I’ve never been an athlete in my life” and, “I’m not competitive.”

But once there, both women realized dragon boating became their outlet. They shared how the activity allows them to get away, while receiving the camaraderie of peers; united by experience with a common struggle. In fact, the concept of communal struggle is innate to the activity itself, since the sport demands that rowers work in unison.

“It’s different from a team sport where you have star players. We drive the boat together. It takes everyone paddling in sync. It matters that we do it as a collective,” said Levey, adding that cancer is “just a backdrop.”

Rachael says that for her dragon boating is “almost like a meditation.”

“You lose yourself,” she said, adding that, “I’ve let a lot of hard stuff go, and shed a lot of tears on the dragon boat.”

For Kandel, dragon boating has been “no less than a lifeline,” and added that her body has never been as strong as it is now. “And it’s so much fun,” she said.

In addition to leisurely practices out on the river, the group competes regionally, nationally and internationally against other groups of survivors. Levey was able to compete in New Zealand in April 2023, and is preparing to enter a competition in France in 2026 alongside 10 members from the Dragon City team and 4,500 other survivors.

Paradise City is currently on temporary hiatus from their May through September routine of boating on the Connecticut River, and heading inside for winter conditioning, which includes weights, workouts and music, said Kandel.

The concert on Sunday begins at 4 p.m. at Northampton’s Academy of Music on 247 Main St., where tickets can currently be bought. Featured will be Tony Award nominee Jenn Colella and Seth Rudestsky of Sirius XM in a Broadway-themed performance.

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com