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Originally from Winnipeg, Jonathon Fenton is attempting to swim 26 km across Lake Winnipeg this weekend in support of CancerCare.
Fenton was first diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 1999 while living in Japan.
"I decided to move back to Winnipeg and got treatment there at the Health Science Centre," says Fenton. "I got surgery and did six months of chemo. Then everything was great for 20 years, not even a flare-up or anything."
During that time, Fenton moved to Alberta, which is where he was living when he was diagnosed with the same cancer a second time in 2019.
"I ended up getting a lot of chemo again, and a stem cell transplant. I was able to use my own stem cells. That was five and a half years ago now, and I'm going strong."
A Huge Feat to Celebrate Life and Fight Cancer for Others
After watching a powerful movie called Nyad, Fenton decided he wanted to do something similar. The film is based on a true story of a woman in her 60s who decided to swim from Cuba to Florida, a total of 160 km in one try.
"I'm swimming from Grand Beach to Gimli, that's the target, which is 26 km as the crow flies. If I'm out of gas at 15 km, I might duck out at Willow Point. It's looking pretty good for this weekend to go for it."
Previously, Fenton has been training in Alberta with a former Olympian coach. In his 60s, to date, Fenton has completed an 11 km practice swim.
"There are no sharks or jellyfish, no tides or currents. Just some algae and some waves. I thought, Why not do it for a cancer fundraiser. To give back a little bit."
His goal is to raise $25,000 for CancerCare in both Manitoba as well as Alberta, for a total of $50,000. As of Thursday, July 31, Fenton has already helped raise $21,450 total. People interested can donate here.
"People who are diagnosed or going through stem cells or operations take it one week at a time. It's easy to say and hard to do. If you think of the whole six months, you almost can't process it. But maybe take the analogy of the swim. I'm going one km at a time. You got a few appointments this week? Deal with that, that's enough."
Fenton is hoping to swim across Lake Winnipeg on Saturday, Aug. 2. Fenton will have his highschool friend driving a pontoon boat beside him, along with his niece and her boyfriend from Calgary, to support him.