MS WildPlay Warriors
The water is the place to be – it’s very healing, insists Trish Sims of Victoria. At 61 years of age, Trish is one of the original four members of the 20+ member MS WildPlay Warriors dragon boat team based in Victoria, BC. The group of individuals with MS, many of whom knew each other from attending other MS Society programs, embarked on this adventure four years ago.
“The first year, we didn’t know what we were doing. We wore out the physiotherapist who was coaching us with all our questions. Still, we completed the race - and coming 90th of 90 was amazing to me. The next year we had a professional coach, and we won the gold medal in our division. Last year, our 3rd year as a team, we didn’t win a gold but we moved up a couple of divisions and came in 3rd in our division. This year we’ve been doing more festivals – it seemed as if all of a sudden, we gelled as a team.
Every year there’s a new high. The first year we couldn’t even paddle for 30 seconds at a time. This year we participated in a race called Head of the Dragon – we covered 4.4 kilometres out to the cruise ship terminals, paddling continuously for more than half an hour. It was very emotional for me – we were awarded Team of the Year.
It takes a really big commitment – paddling twice a week from early April to mid September. The first year, I would be in bed the whole next day after going out. For a lot of us, it became the centre of our lives. People participate when they can, and we have spares to fill in if someone isn’t up to it. One girl used to take her walker to a park overlooking the sea and watch us as we paddled. Now, when she is able to, she’ll come into a boat and paddle with us. There are many other ways people can get involved – we hold [fund-raising] raffles, garage sales, BBQs…
For me, seeing people on the team progress is just amazing. We now paddle throughout the winter in outriggers. It doesn’t matter what the weather is like – we’re always out there. You don’t notice your skin or feet or the other effects of MS – even in the bad weather, you just feel alive. A team isn’t one person, it’s a group of individuals who are working together.
We have been received so well by the paddling community. It’s fun to be part of something that’s so much bigger than us. It isn’t about MS – not everyone outside of our team knows about the unpredictable way of life with MS. Many of us suffer from depression. On days when some of us may not be doing so well, there’s no need to explain. We support each other. We are an inspiration to some of the other teams with disabilities. This is something I never considered a possibility, and it became something very important in my life. My advice? Leave your limits at home and go out there and try something new – your whole world will change.”