Fly fishing helps breast cancer survivors cast out fear

PITTSBURGH — Dizy Kapalka has always loved the great outdoors, so it's no surprise that she quickly mastered the artistry of casting a line in a graceful arch into a cool, clear body of water.

It's why the Cabot, Pennsylvania, resident took up fly fishing a decade ago. And the sisterhood she's found doing it? That's worth a story.

In December 2007, after being bitten by a horse on her left breast, Kapalka discovered she had the same dreaded disease that had claimed her grandmother and sister — breast cancer.

Just 47 years old, she got "all the treatments" required in the months after. But as (bad) luck would have it, the cancer cells began growing again and in 2012 she relapsed, "which was almost harder for me," admits Kapalka, whose daughter was in middle school at the time.

In 2013 at a mentor's suggestion, she added her name to the waiting list for Steel City Dragons' Pink Steel team for breast cancer survivors. After someone sent her info for Casting for Recovery, a national program that provides free fly-fishing retreats to empower women in the same situation, she applied to that, too, because it sounded "nice."

Guess who got their hooks in her first?

Though Kapalka wasn't selected in Casting For Recovery's lottery for the 2013 getaway at the private HomeWaters Club in Spruce Creek, Huntingdon County, she ended up getting in at the last minute as an alternate. It was a life-changing experience.

"I didn't really know what to expect," the 64-year-old says. It had been years since she'd fished, and she'd never fished with a fly. "But it was one of the very best weekends of my life, and I've had a lot of good weekends."

Wellness focused

In 2024, doctors in the U.S. will diagnose more than 300,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women, according to the American Cancer Society. Earlier, more thorough screening and increased awareness has helped cut the death rate over the last few decades, but around 42,000 women are predicted to die from the disease in 2024. It's the second leading cause of cancer death in women after lung cancer.

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