Fish & Game Sponsors Women Casting For Recovery

Source: http://spinitwide.com/view/fish-and-game-sponsors-women-casting-for-recovery-4
Media release from Eastern Fish & Game

The charitable organisation which runs fly fishing retreats for women recuperating from breast cancer – Casting for Recovery – has been given a boost by Fish & Game NZ teaming up as a sponsor.

Casting for Recovery (CFR) organises two-and-a-half day retreat weekends at no cost for women whose lives have often been profoundly impacted by breast cancer.
Fish & Game spokesman Grant Dyson says the organisation is only too pleased to help sponsor such a good cause.

“Most anglers would acknowledge ‘fishing as therapy’ – it’s a calming, relaxing outdoor pursuit that takes people’s minds away from their immediate worries. There are also the physical benefits too, from walking up a river or around a lake and casting a line, topped off - hopefully - by the excitement of landing a nice trout."

CFR executive director Sherrie Feickert says the organisation is very pleased to receive support from Fish & Game NZ, which includes help with licences for participants, to the use of hatchery casting pools, equipment and lecture rooms.
She says CFR knows from past retreats that around 30% of participants go on to take up fly fishing: “It’s so exciting and rewarding to see the women grow into a new found passion which certainly helps with the recovery process.

“And of course, when this happens it is giving something back to Fish & Game when these women become licenceholders and active members of fishing communities in different regions round the country.”

The organisation practices catch and release and has won a sustainability award for this. Ms Feickert also notes that CFR is not exclusively for women as some men suffer from breast cancer as well.

The next CFR retreat will be held in the Nelson-Marlborough region from March 23 to 25. Lynda Topp, of the ‘Topp Twins’ fame, will help run the weekend.
Fish & Game’s sponsorship includes providing participants with a ‘Getting Started in Trout Fishing’ information package which includes a DVD and CD with fishing tips, access information and maps. These are available to all members of the public who might be interested in taking up freshwater fishing – contact your local Fish & Game office (details at www.fishandgame.org.nz).

Background:
Casting for Recovery was founded in 1996 in the U.S. state of Vermont, the unique brainchild of a breast cancer reconstructive surgeon and fly fisher. It began as a local grassroots group with a big heart and an original national vision, and quickly received endorsements from medical and psycho-social experts for its innovative healing program model.

Casting for Recovery was founded on the principles that the natural world is a healing force and that cancer survivors deserve one weekend — free of charge and free of the stresses from medical treatment, home, or workplace — to experience something new and challenging while enjoying beautiful surroundings within an intimate, safe, and nurturing structure.

ENDS

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