“We are not the only ones and our resolve to carry on to discover treatments and fight cancer are ever more empowered.”

In 2009, David Day and his wife, Martha got involved with Swim Across America – Seattle by raising funds for cancer research at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, knowing it was for someone else. Sadly, in 2015, their participation became more personal as Martha was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Oddly, the discovery was the result of a shoulder x-ray as she was considering whether surgery was needed to repair her “swimmer’s shoulder.” Martha bravely worked to treat herself with diet, exercise, sleep, two rounds of chemo, surgeries and clinical trials, but sadly passed away in late May 2016. “This was quite devastating and life changing for me, our two children, and all our friends and relatives. We are not the only ones and our resolve to carry on to discover treatments and fight cancer are ever more empowered.” says David. 

David has continued to be a big part of SAA-Seattle as he is co-event director for the swim that has raised over $4.2 million for Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and is captain of Team Martha Ries, that has raised over $227,000 in 12 years. 

David strives to be a leader in the Seattle community and to raise as much money as he can as he knows first hand the importance of furthering cancer research. “In the year of Martha’s treatment, we educated ourselves as much as we could, learning that so much more knowledge is needed to make headway against cancer and in particular pancreas cancer. Knowledge is needed to fight cancer and we know she and many are the beneficiary of all the previous research, but we need more knowledge to advance further.”

Swim Across America is celebrating 35 years of impact in 2022. SAA has raised $100 million since its inception in 1987 to support cancer research and clinical trials across the U.S. Please contact Jeni Howard at jhoward@jhowardpr.com for media inquiries.