THIS year’s Women on the Water (Wow) cancer research fundraising event will celebrate its 10 year anniversary on Thursday.
Tomorrow, Wow, sponsored by the Baltimore Sailing Club (BSC), will host a full day of activities including the morning swim, the best dressed-in-pink swimmers and boats competitions, an auction, and live entertainment.
The event was founded in 2014 by the late Joan Collins, a former BSC commodore, to raise funds and awareness for Breakthrough Cancer Research (BCR).
Joan herself was diagnosed with the skin cancer melanoma in 2013 and was impressed with BCR because their work included examining certain strains of cancer that had incredibly low success rates in their response to treatments.
Wow has been a success from the start – when droves of people headed out in a great pink flotilla from Baltimore harbour to Sherkin Island for a game of tug-of-war and a great treasure hunt.
Two years later, it returned on a blustery afternoon, sailing to Sherkin again for the tug-of-war and to cheer on the O’Donovan brothers to win their silver medal in Rio. In 2018 the sea of pink continued to grow as Joan organised and ran the event for her last time. She passed away in October that year.
Breaking the biannual tradition, Joan’s friends and family ran the event in her memory in 2019 introducing the Joan Collins Memorial Trophy which was presented for the first time to the Bushe family for the best dressed boat.
After a brief Covid break, record numbers of pink clad boats and people appeared once again in 2022. To date, it has raised close to €100,000 for BCR and Marymount Hospice.
This year her daughter Odharnait and the BSC team will transform the village and harbour into a waterpark-like fun zone with dinghies, kayaks, RIBs, sailing boats and currachs.
The Collage Band will conclude the day-long affair, as it has done since 2014.
See baltimoresailingclub.ie for more.
