Help Tanya raise money

My mama used to call me her water baby. As a child, I could spend hours splashing, playing, and swimming in water, no matter what the weather. As a teen, I especially loved floating in the sea, that feeling of being held up by invisible hands. The freedom. Weightlessness. That beautiful lightness of being. Despite many years of swimming lessons, I was only able to somewhat master the breaststroke. And, leaping off the dreaded high dive probably scarred my belly for life. But, I survived. Instead of elegant dives, I now choose to cannonball, and when I'm swimming, I use the breaststroke. Well, my own awkward version of it.

Fast forward to October 2020. After watching a delightful video of a group of giggling women (the 'Morning Swimmers of Sandagerði') who brave the frigid waters of the North Atlantic every morning for a little swim, I knew I had found the perfect antidote to pandemic loneliness. Dipping into the Salish Sea, rain, snow, or shine, became my new morning ritual and I have embraced the cold ever since! My goodness, it is SO invigorating to slowly wade into the icy water, focusing purely on my breathing, while everyday worries, stress, and pain simply float away. It is both calming and exhilarating, awakens all my senses, and makes me feel so happy to be alive!

Little did I know then, that my cold water swimming would help me pull through the worst experience of my life: losing Jimmie, my soulmate of 26 years, in August of 2021 after a mere 3-month battle with cancer. To top that off, just as I had finally managed to come up for air, I received my own diagnosis in October of 2022: stage 3 breast cancer. I kept swimming though, every day, except when the roads were too icy and when I needed surgery. I was back in the ocean 10 days after my double mastectomy and I swim as soon as I've driven off the ferry after each and every chemotherapy treatment. I will keep swimming, for my kids and for myself, because I love to swim.

I'm reminded of American poet Tyler Knott Gregson's inspiring quote: “Promise me you will not spend so much time treading water and trying to keep your head above the waves that you forget, truly forget, how much you have always loved to swim.”

This brings me to the wonderful SwimBowen event! SwimBowen's Cancer Care Fund helped my family stay afloat, both in 2021 and 2022, for which I'm forever grateful! So, powered by my love for swimming and my desire to give back to my community, I pledge to take part in the heart-lifting SwimBowen event! 

I still have 12 more chemotherapy treatments ahead of me but should hopefully have those completed by the end of June and be ready for July 15th. I've already started training, swimming 100m every morning at the moment, and will slowly increase that to 750m... I can do this, with my awkward breaststroke!

I'm hoping to raise $7,500. If you'd like to sponsor me with a donation to SwimBowen or help me with a share, that would be so great! Thank you from my heart for your support!!

With much love and heaps of gratitude to the amazing SwimBowen Society, Tanya xox