Gary Ellison Builders got together a team to take part in the Dragons and Flowers Pool for Life dragon Boat races on behalf of Runcorn Rotary. It was made up of Gary Ellison, Steven Johnson, Richard Creswell, Dave Banner, Mike Chalk, Scott Gordon, Mark Allen, Alex Maxwell, Tommy Tarzen, Kelvin Moore, Wayne Holden, Ronnie McGowan, Ged Wellis, Ryan Lillis, Tony Wilson and Harry Rutter. Supported by Ken Tonge of Runcorn Rotary and family and friends.

In glorious sunshine, teams from as far afield as Bournemouth and Donegal came together to join in the 2018 Dragons and Flowers event. As ever, the Pool of Life members worked tirelessly to ensure everyone got a real flavour of what it is like to be in a boat, paddle as a team and – for some – cross the finish line in first place. Without the support of member of Amathus, who helmed, gave safety briefings, took photos and acted as race officials, a day such as Dragons and Flowers could not take place. We are indebted to them, and say a huge thank you from all of us.

But the true stars of the day were the competitors, some of whom have been coming back to the event year after year. The sense of competition was palpable, with everyone checking their times for every race, trying to guess who would be in the final. In their first race Runcorn Rotary finished second only a 100th of a second behind the winners; race two and three they took part in resulted in 2 first places thus qualifying for the final.

And what a final it was! Four teams took part – Water Co, Janet’s Gym, the Runcorn Rotary club and Merseycare. All four had been paddling at sub 1min50 times, and all have taken part in the event before. It could not have been a more closely fought out race, or more exciting finale, if we have scripted it. In fact, if we had scripted it, it would have seemed unbelievable. Just one second separated the winners, from the team which came in fourth place. Here’s the photo finish, showing just how close a race it was. Merseycare just pipping Runcorn Rotary on the line
For everyone in Pool of Life, one of the most special parts of the day was the chance to race against three other Breast Cancer survivor’s dragon boat teams, and share our flower ceremony with all these awesome women.

Members from Pink Champagne, Paddlers for Life, Donegal Dragons and Pool of Life all came together to take a minute to remember those who are sadly not with us any more.