Making Waves to Fight Cancer since 1987
FINIS is celebrating SAAs 30th anniversary by offering a $30 gift card to all WaveMakers. WaveMakers are fundraisers that generate $1,000 in donations. In 2016, there were 1,300 WaveMakers so FINIS is donating $39,000 in gift cards. The cards will be handed onsite to WaveMakers during check in for your swim. This is just one of the perks of being a WaveMaker in 2017! Get registered now and aim high for WaveMaker recognition!
In Pool Swims Across America, we feature local pool swims that raise awareness for cancer research. If you’re interested in getting your local swim team or pool involved, learn more here.
Ranney Panthers Swim for a Cure (Feb 18th) — Tinton Falls, NJ
Led by junior Matthew Chang, the Ranney Panthers Swim for a Cure raised $3,500.
THANKSwimming FOR A CURE Pool Swim (Feb 26th) — New York, NY
Matthew Lipton raised over $5,000 for his Mitzvah project and continued the pool swim tradition that his sister started 6 years ago in memory of their grandmother.
A dream come true – A promise kept – An incredible journey
Patty Brummet is preparing for her third bike trek across the United States to support Swim Across America. Her journey of 3,160 miles begins March 5 in San Diego and ends on May 2 in St. Augustine, FL. The fight to cure cancer inspires her dream to bike America.
Patty waited until she was retired to start chasing her lifelong dream of biking across America. After a hiatus in 2016 due to a training accident, Patty is back to complete this feat a third time to benefit SAA – Chicago and Rush University Cancer Center.
She rides with a special jersey with names on the back to remember and honor cancer patients which she began compiling in 2014. “In 2015 I added 50 more names. In 2016 I added 31 more names. I wore this jersey on the most challenging days,” Patty wrote.
A swimmer as well, this is Patty’s 13th year participating in SAA – Chicago. She has personally raised over $81,000 for cancer research, prevention, and treatment and has a goal of $15,000 in 2017 (as of March 6, Patty has raised $13,481).
If you’re inspired by Patty Brummet’s ride, you can donate here or follow her adventure through her personal blog.
Published research leads to sharing of information which can lead to new cures to fight cancer. Swim Across America – Atlanta beneficiary researcher Dr. Thomas Cash gives credit to Swim Across America for funding his research on the correlation of Ezrin Expression Pattern and Clinical Outcomes in Ewing Sarcoma.
The authors acknowledge the Emory + Children’s Pediatric Research Biostatistics Core for their assistance with this manuscript. Research support was provided by Swim Across America and the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Foundation/Scott Shockley Family.
When Johns Hopkins scientists Bert Vogelstein, Ken Kinzler, Luis Diaz and their colleagues linked certain cancers to mutations in genes that repair DNA, they may not have imagined that their findings would spark an idea that has become a crystal ball for predicting whether immunotherapy is more likely to work in a person with cancer. The $3 million in grant funding over the last decade from Swim Across America – Baltimore has played a major role in funding their idea of “mismatch repair” so more families can have hope.
Now, their work is being featured in the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Clinical Advances 2017 and you can read more about the accomplishments here and watch the patient perspective below.
Swim Across America celebrated the end of the year across the country by presenting checks to our esteemed beneficiaries. Here is a collection of smiling faces as the hard fundraising work is now seeing its impact multiplied in the fight against cancer.
The Team Suffolk Pool Swim to Fight Cancer just had another incredible year, raising almost $50,000. The swim started in 2011, and leaders have done a great job passing on the baton to keep this SAA – Nassau-Suffolk event growing. The Lennon Family has been taking the lead the past few years and Kelly Lennon was recognized by the Huntington Town Board this year (see more below). Over the last 5 years Team Suffolk has raised more than $200,000.
Thanks to the Team Suffolk coaches (John and Frank) for embracing the event, supporting it and welcoming it as a chance for their community to come together and see their team show strength and support to family members or swimmers who might be battling cancer.
On Wednesday, Dec 7th Councilwoman Susan Berland and the Huntington Town Board presented Kelly Lennon with a proclamation for her efforts organizing Team Suffolk’s annual Swim Across America Pool Swim. Kelly has participated in each event, and was the team organizer the last two years. Kelly has personally raised over $35,000 for SAA. Kelly is an accomplished swimmer and will be attending SUNY Geneseo in the fall and swimming for Coach Paul Dotterweich and his BlueWave. Congrats Kelly!
We appreciate your time, fundraising and participation as part of the Swim Across America family. As our organization grows, we will reach out from time to time to ask you to help us tell our story as a leader in cancer research funding.
If you have participated, volunteered or donated to Swim Across America, and you have a profile on LinkedIn, list Swim Across America under your volunteer activities. When you identify Swim Across America, our logo will come up next to your activity. We suggest you select the “health” option from the cause drop down. In the text box, identify what role you played and which swim(s). For example, if you participated, volunteered or donated to Tampa, identify as SAA – Tampa. You can list several swims if you have provided support over the years. LinkedIn is an ideal community for you to showcase causes that you support and we would be honored to have you recognize Swim Across America in your profile.
Step 1: Select “VIEW MORE”
Step 2: Select “VOLUNTEERING EXPERIENCE”
Step 3: Enter “Swim Across America, Inc” and fill in the details of your experience!
Stefanie Joho joined SAA – Baltimore this year to share her uplifting story. Four years ago at 22-years old she was diagnosed with stage 2 colon cancer. Stefanie went through repeated chemo with no positive response, and the cancer spread to stage 4. Her doctors gave her weeks to live. Desperate and not willing to give up, her sister googles and finds Dr. Luis Diaz at our beneficiary Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Dr. Diaz told Joho to come immediately to JHU where she participates in an immunotherapy clinical trial of Keytruda funded–yes funded–by your donations to Swim Across America. The trial saved her life (she has “no evidence of disease NED”), she has a bright future and Keytruda is now FDA approved. Read Stefanie’s story in the New York Times and if you are inspired by the work being done through Swim Across America labs, please consider donating to SAA: http://bit.ly/SAAdonation.
Genetic tests for mismatch repair deficiency are commercially available. But insurers might not pay for the drugs — Keytruda and Opdivo cost $150,000 a year — based on such a small study. The study was paid for by Swim Across America and other charities, and the National Institutes of Health. – New York Times
Immunotherapy approaches are designed to stimulate the immune system to recognize and destroy cancer and can result in responses lasting for years. One strategy to improve immune responses against tumors is to isolate immune cells from the tumor, grow the cells to very large numbers in the laboratory, then transfer them back to the patient as adoptive cell therapy (ACT). At the Tampa Moffitt Cancer Center, patients with metastatic melanoma have been treated with ACT in clinical trials. At the time of the initiation of these trials, the expected survival time for stage IV metastatic melanoma patients was 6-9 months. Currently, patients treated on the ACT trial are tumor-free at 46, 52, 54, 57, 59 and 66 months. Funding from Swim Across America has led to the development of additional clinical trials in patients with metastatic melanoma that combines ACT with other immunotherapy approaches that is expected to boost results even further. The crucial funding from Swim Across America has allowed for the development of improved ACT strategies resulting in additional awards to Drs. Amod Sarnaik and Shari Pilon-Thomas totaling greater than $3 million. These awards include a National Cancer Institute K23 training grant, an American Cancer Society Research Scholar grant, and a sponsored Research Agreement with Lion Biotechnologies.
Picture 1 L-R: Dr. Amod Sarnaik, Dr. Shari Pilon-Thomas
Picture 2 L-R: Dr. Shari Pilon-Thomas, Dr. Amod Sarnaik
Swim Across America