Photography: Alice Veysey.
Singing the national anthem at last year’s World Dragon Boat Racing Championships with a gold medal proudly on her chest, Harriet Watson paused. She considered all she had overcome in recent years.
“I’m just gobsmacked I was able to represent New Zealand,” shares Harriet, 57.
“I think I’m still dreaming it! To wear that silver fern on your heart is amazing.”
Just three-and-a-half years earlier, the Tauranga mother of six had been diagnosed with stage two, grade three breast cancer. When she found a lump in September 2022, Harriet initially brushed it off. But when it was still there a month later, her husband Craig insisted she go see a doctor.
Within hours, doctors sent her for a biopsy, and that afternoon her doctor confirmed it was a tumour the size of a 20-cent coin.
“I just kept saying, ‘Why me?’” Harriet tells.
“You see those ads that say, ‘One in nine women will develop breast cancer.’ I never imagined I would be one of them.”
The red devil
Suddenly, Harriet found herself trapped on a roller-coaster ride. In November, she had a lumpectomy on her right breast and the dissection of the lymph nodes from her right armpit. Two weeks later, she had the first round of a highly potent chemotherapy drug, which causes such intense side effects, it is commonly referred to as “the red devil”.
When she speaks with the Weekly, the shock and struggle of treatment is still raw, and her tears flow freely as she looks back on just how hard it’s been at times.
“When we left my first treatment, I was on a high,” tells Harriet.
“But when we got home, it hit me. It was the devil, all right. “I just lay on my couch – my husband and I both cried. I said, ‘I don’t want to do this any more.’ But we kept thinking about how long I would live if I stopped. So I decided I had to stick it out.”
Held together by love
Through the gruelling months of chemo and radiation, what kept Harriet going was the love of Craig, 59, and their children, Blake, 26, Ashton, 24, Tyler, 22, Caitlin, 20. As well as Craig’s sons Chris, 39, and Matthew, 38.
“The hardest part was seeing my kids and trying to be strong for them,” Harriet admits.
“I put up a big front when I was with them, but when I went to bed, I just let it all go. Some days were pretty dark.”
Healing on the water
A passionate waka ama paddler, Harriet longed to get back on the water with her team as she struggled through her lowest moments. When she was finally given the all-clear to ease back into training at the end of 2023. She wasted no time.
She not only went back to waka ama. But also joined the Bay of Plenty breast cancer survivors’ dragon boat crew Boobops to get more time on the water.
“I was basically paddling seven days a week – not that I told my oncologist,” she grins.
“Some of my teammates call me the machine because I was basically paddling 24/7.”
A sisterhood on the water
With the Boobops, she found a life-changing sisterhood. Which gave her the confidence to push herself out of her comfort zone. When the world championships announced they would include a breast cancer division for the first time in 2025, the usually shy Harriet immediately put her name forward.
She was one of 24 women from across the country selected to be part of the Black Dragons Breast Cancer Paddlers. Despite only having three training camps as a group, the team made it onto the podium in every division and proudly brought home a gold, two silvers and one bronze medal.
Gold, tears and aroha
“It was overwhelming – the amount of aroha in the space as we watched the flag go up and sang the national anthem,” enthuses Harriet.
“The other Black Dragon teams did the haka for us – it was wicked.”
Harriet now hopes she can help other women battling breast cancer see there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
“I still have to deal with the side effects and I have lymphedema [swelling caused by a damaged lymphatic system] in my right side,” she says.
“I try not to focus too much on breast cancer. I just try and encourage ladies that there can be a life after cancer.”
