A group of local women have decided to take on their husbands on the grounds of "if you can't beat 'em, join them".

Bored watching from the sidelines while their husbands trained for the Great River Race, the women from Chiswick and Barnes decided to put together their own team.

The seventeen, ‘Dragon Flies' ‘will don fluorescent wigs and pink shirts to paddle upstream for 21 miles from Milwall to Ham along the Thames with 300 other non-powered boats in this weekend’s race. According to Katherine Norbury, the idea came when she watched her husband row as a crew of ‘Robin Hoods’ in the Diamond Jubilee pagent, and prior to that, in last years Great River Race.

"We got bored watching from the sidelines, so myself and many of the other wives decided it was our turn to take on a new challenge. “

The 'Dragon Flies' from Chiswick are; Susie Staveley, Kat Norbury ,Caroline Boyd, Sophie Pryor, Megan Aquilina and   Bels Caton .

They are all newcomers to rowing and have had to make time to attend training sessions on a traidtional Dragon Boat in the Docklands over the past few weeks.

"In addition to taking part in the race, we decided we really wanted to take this opportunity to raise funds for a charity and in  the spirit of the Olympics and the Paralympics,  we have chosen "Elizabeth's Legacy of Hope" . This is a small, local charity that supports children who have become vulnerable amputees due to war, disease or disaster across the world," says Katherine.

 The charity provides low-cost prosthetics, vital operations, educational, social and psychological assistance and care.

It was set up after an accident some years ago in Mortlake, when a double-decker bus mounted the pavement and collided with three members of the Hope family. Little Pollyanna, who was two at the time, had a leg amputated. Her mother, Sarah was seriously injured, and her grandmother, Elizabeth was killed.

Sarah Hope was chosen to carry the Paralympic Games torch earlier this year.

September 14, 2012