October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the annual Pink Paddle is very close to my heart.
Three years ago, completely out of the blue, I was diagnosed with breast cancer following a routine mammogram I wasn’t even planning to attend. I was fit, active and felt perfectly healthy. Cancer simply wasn’t something I thought would ever happen to me.
Treatment took over for a while. Everything else, including paddleboarding, and the book I had just been commissioned to write, went on hold. Physically, I recovered quite quickly, but mentally it took longer. I’d lost some of the confidence and optimism I’d always had.
Getting back to paddleboarding and to the lovely SUP community helped enormously.
It’s hard to explain. There is just something about being on the water that resets me. No targets, no stats, no need to achieve anything. Simply being outdoors, moving through the landscape and sharing adventures with good people. Paddling helped me find some much-needed perspective again.
“With each stroke, worries and doubts begin to melt away.”
I don’t do pink, except for this. Every October, I want to get involved in the Dittons Paddle Boarding Pink Paddle. It’s now in its fifth year, raising awareness and funds during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Because we’re paddleboarders, naturally we do that on paddleboards.
This year, DPB is joining forces withPaddleboarding London to bring the charity paddle to Camden for the first time:
Date:
Sunday, 18 October 2026
Time:
11am meet, 11:30am on the water
Venue:
The Pirate Castle, Camden
We’ll set off from The Pirate Castle and turn Regent’s Canal pink, paddling past Primrose Hill and the Feng Shang Princess, through London Zoo and towards Regent’s Park before heading back to Camden.
There will be plenty of pink, plenty of good company and cupcakes after.
Last year’s Pink Paddle raised £652 for Cancer Research UK. Can we make it £1,000 this year?
Want to join us? We’d love to have you. Places are limited and this one is for paddlers aged 18+ with previous paddling experience.
This isn’t my first Pink Paddle. I’ve joined two previous events organised by Dittons Paddle Boarding, both on different stretches of the Basingstoke Canal.
They’re wonderfully cheerful events, lots of pink outfits, ridiculous wigs, laughter and titty cupcakes, but there’s a serious reason behind all the pink. Breast cancer affects so many of us, whether personally or through someone close to us. One in seven women in the UK will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. At our 2024 Pink Paddle in Odiham, people shared some of the reasons the cause was close to their hearts before we took to the water.
That mix of fun, friendship and something much more meaningful underneath is what makes the Pink Paddle special to me. This year we’re taking it to London to reach more people. Let’s paddle Camden pink.
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