Local Swim Across America Events Helping Young Cancer Patients
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Every July you will find June Hatch and her family preparing for the local chapter of Swim Across America’s Open Water Swim in the Long Island Sound.
More than 30 years ago, Hatch’s mother died from cancer, which is how the family initially became involved with the organization that is dedicated to holding swim events to raise money for cancer research. Her mother was one of the key reasons why the Long Island Sound chapter scheduled the swim, which is now in its 31st year.
Cancer impacted Hatch, a Port Chester resident, again about five years ago, when the second oldest of her four daughters, Jane, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Given that history, there will be almost nothing that can stop Hatch from participating in this year’s event on some level next Saturday, July 29 near the Larchmont Yacht Club, regardless of whether or not she’s in the water. It’s a challenging event for participants, especially if the conditions are difficult. For certain, her husband will be in the Sound a week from Saturday, she said.
“I have to remind myself of all the hard work the cancer patients did,” Hatch said. “So that swim’s nothing in comparison. So I try to remind myself (of) that.”
Five years later, Jane Hatch, preparing to enter sixth grade in the fall, is doing remarkably well. It’s been two years since her last treatments and last Saturday she and her sisters were at the Westchester Country Club to participate in one of Swim Across America’s seven pool swims across Westchester this summer.
Next weekend there are more two swims scheduled – at the Orienta Beach Club in Mamaroneck on Saturday and at Chappaqua Swim & Tennis on Sunday, said Jean Fufidio, the director of the Long Island Sound chapter, which oversees the seven pool swims in Westchester and the open water event. Membership is not required to participate.
Over 30 years, Swim Across America’s impact has been profound. This year it is expected that the chapter will reach the $25 million mark for money raised for research since it was launched in 1992. For those who are regularly involved in the swims each year, it becomes an important date on their calendar.
“If you’ve ever been to one of our swims it’s like a family reunion every year,” Fufidio said. “You look forward to coming and everybody is touched by what we think we can do with the funding.”
There has long been an emphasis on having Swim Across America focus on pediatric cancers, which attracts scores of children and teens to participate, she said. About 20 percent of swimmers are under 18.
Fufidio said there has been very little money awarded by the federal government to research pediatric cancers. According to the Children’s Cancer Research Fund in 2021, only about 4 percent of federal money for cancer research is earmarked for childhood cancers, in part because most cancers that affect children are considered rare.
“It’s a great cause. I have lots of passion for it,” Fufidio said. “I think specifically that you see some of the breakthrough science that is being developed from us.”
Some of those breakthroughs are occurring at two of the local Swim Across America’s partners – Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medicine.
Dr. Robyn Gartrell, a pediatric oncologist at Columbia who is also a researcher, said she received the first Swim Across America funds for her work in 2016. Some of Gartrell’s patients are children who suffer from diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a rare but always fatal brain tumor, usually within nine to 15 months of diagnosis, because it forms near the base of the brain. A patient of hers died last week from DIPG.
Gartrell said she has been focusing on combining radiation, chemotherapy and immunotherapy to improve outcomes for children with brain tumors and ease suffering. Families who’ve lost children are donating time, money and some even their child’s brain after they pass away, which inspires her to continue her research despite seeing so many young lives cut short.
“So for me, my oasis is the lab,” Gartrell said. “If I did not have the lab, I would not be okay.”
To learn more about how to get involved with Swim Across America or to sign up for one of their remaining five pool swims or the Long Island Sound swim, visit https://www.swimacrossamerica.org/site/TR/OpenWater/LongIslandSound?pg=entry&fr_id=6472.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/