Mrs Brown’s boats

Our fantastic Mathematics teacher, Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award lead, and rowing co-ordinator, Mrs Sue Brown, competed in a Senior Masters Four in the elite rowing event, the Head of the Charles Race in Boston Massachusetts, on the first Saturday of the half term break. Sue previously won the much-coveted Senior Singles at the race in 2009, and was delighted to compete again for the first time in seven years this October. We are all very proud of Sue for her many accomplishments – read her story in her own words as follows:

“Those of you who knew me in 2009 might remember a different Sue Brown. I was used to winning at World Masters regattas and being the best in my age category in the world, and finally returned from the Head of the Charles Race in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2009, with a winner's medal for the Senior Singles (not many Brits, or even Olympic rowers, have one).

My bubble burst shortly afterwards when I was diagnosed with breast cancer and I spent 2010 having the full works at Addenbrooke’s Hospital: surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. ‘Mindfulness’ hadn’t yet been so widely coined, but my mental focus from sport, knowing that training has to hurt in order to achieve a result, and pushing physical barriers, helped me through the treatment.

So, one of my long term goals has been to return to do the event in Boston. The school has always understood how important rowing is to me, and supported me on this occasion by allowing me to take the Thursday and Friday off before half term to travel to the US, to race in the Master Fours with some ladies I have rowed with over the years (the youngest one I taught to row as a Hills Road student, and she went on to row for Cambridge).

We were invited to a reception for Cambridge alumni on the Friday night, and were able to talk to George Nash, who was part of the gold medal winning British Coxless Fours team at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Our event was on Saturday 22 October. The weather was very mixed during the weekend, and we had just pushed off from the pontoon when the ‘monsoon’ arrived! Thankfully the rain stopped before our race though and we had time to bail out lots of rainwater before we crossed the start line.

We had the best race yet as a crew, and overtook six other crews to finish 10th out of 25 – a better finishing position than the Leander Club crew, containing many male Olympians! Before cancer, I would have been mortified not to medal, and racing was about needing to win at all costs; this time it was enough to know that I had pushed my body to its limits, worked at least as hard as the rest of the crew, and received the still-necessary endorphin hit! As long as my body will allow I am going to continue, but there are an increasing number of days when I am in considerable pain from arthritic joints caused by the chemo, so I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to tick another thing off my bucket list while I can. I am so lucky to have been allowed the chance to race there again, it has given me a real lift!”