The sport of archery can change athlete’s fortunes, but the practice of it can change people’s lives.
Although curable, breast cancer like many other variants of the prevalent, foul disease leaves many physical scars as well as mental ones including lymphedema, a long-term condition that causes swelling in the body’s tissues.
It often occurs for patients’ post-surgery, with the condition creating an “aching, heavy feeling” as described by the British National Health Service’s symptom guide, in the upper body.
But two archery instructors in Uruguay have made it their mission to treat this issue.
In May 2023, Alejandra Borsani and Andrea Castroman set up Flechas de Vida – “Arrows of Life” in English – a free rehabilitation programme specialised for mastectomy patients through the practice of archery.
Borsani and Castroman, with the latter also being a nurse, were inspired to create Flechas de Vida after discovering a similar programme in Spain that proved the vibrations of strings on a bow act as lymphatic drainage, preventing lymphedema development and helping to recover mobility of upper limbs.
It has been an outright success as the number of patients joining has grown exponentially across Uruguay after being initially launched in Montevideo.
“So far, 123 patients have participated,” Borsani and Castroman said. “We started in May 2023 with two patients and today there are 42 active patients, and we have a waiting list of more than 100 women.”
