When you think about sports for retirees, your mind will probably go to things like pickleball, lawn bowls and golf – but not for one 83-year-old breast cancer survivor.
Wilhelmina “Willy” Kranenburg, a resident at Reside Communities’ Samford Grove retirement village in Samford Village, Brisbane, has spent 12 years competing all over the world as part of Team Missabittatitti: a dragon boating squad made up of fellow breast cancer survivors.
Dragon boating involves manually paddling boats over distances between 200 and 2,000 metres in teams of eight to 20 people. While Willy – who has had a hip replacement – didn’t initially think the sport would be for her, she was inspired to give it a try in 2007 by a young Mum who was also fighting breast cancer, and took to it like a dragon boat to water.
“I didn’t think I would be able to try dragon boating, because of my age, but my friends and husband told me that I should try it, so I did,” Willy said.
“I tried paddling for the first time when I was 68 and I got lost in it. I absolutely loved it.”
Team Missabittatitti has since competed all over the world – from Queensland’s Tin Can Bay to far-flung locations like Canada and Italy.
While Willy has since hung up her oars, she’s still involved with the team – she has regular catch-ups with the dragon boat squad, and is determined to keep travelling even if she’s no longer paddling.
“A group of us ladies made a pact that we would all continue paddling until we reached 80 years old, so that’s what we did. There are still ladies paddling well into their 80s, but I stopped at that time after 12 years.
“The last time I paddled was in Florence under the Ponte Vecchio while singing Waltzing Matilda. It was amazing. I’m still looking forward to joining the ladies on upcoming trips. We’re going to New Zealand next,” she said.
It looks like even if Willy’s no longer on the water, she’s showing no signs of slowing down.
