BOSTON -- Once a week, a group of women take to the Charles in Newton, Mass. They are not athletes, but they are learning to be strong again after battling a fierce competitor.

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NewsCenter 5's Rhonda Mann reported that the group of women is paddling their way back from a breast cancer diagnosis.

"It requires full body coordination. The very fact that I could do it, and the fact that my body was functioning again, was a high for me," Kearney Kirby said.

The program is called We Can Row. It is headed by Olympic rower Holly Metcalf, who was inspired after a former student was diagnosed with breast cancer.

"Being in a 60-foot long shell held together in the same limited space, there's a building strength and blending strength mentally and physically that requires a strong sense of self but an ability to reach out to others," Metcalf said.

Rowing is a somewhat controversial exercise for those who have had breast surgery where lymph nodes are removed. Some doctors worry repetitive motion like rowing may lead to chronic swelling called lymphodema.

"Doctors will tend to be cautious and say don't lift anything with that arm, either for the rest of your life depending on how cautious a physician is, or they might say you need to build very carefully back into it," Metcalf said.

The Dana Farber Cancer Institute is tracking these participants as part of a research study on the effects of rowing on breast cancer recovery.

Before getting onto the water, each woman needs her doctor's OK, then spends weeks indoors with physical therapists, gradually increasing arm flexibility and strength.

"I started rowing less than a month after radiation. I didn't have any energy at all, but it's a team for survivors, so I'm learning a whole new sport, thanks to cancer," rower Tia Cross said.

"I got out there the first night, and it was a beautiful evening, and there was a great sunset and all these women who had been through what I had been through and it was really cool," rower Jeanette Millard said.