At the sound of a whirring bullhorn siren Saturday morning, hundreds of swimmers plunged into the chilly San Francisco Bay as part of the 17th annual local Swim Across America event to raise money for cancer research.
Mitali and Anaya Khanzode joined the San Francisco fundraiser in honor of their swim coach, who’s now battling cancer. The sisters from Sunnyvale, ages 20 and 17, are veteran bay swimmers and have each broken world records in open water competitions — including Anaya’s 2013 record of swimming from Alcatraz Island to the San Francisco shore in 50 minutes at age 8.
“Since we’ve been swimming open water for 10-plus years and our coach has become part of our family, it means a lot to support a cause that will help him,” said Mitali.
As “swim angels” at the event, the pair assisted less experienced swimmers along the 1.5-mile route from the Marina Green to Aquatic Park.
“We’re really looking forward to meeting new people,” Anaya said as she walked toward the starting point on the beach beyond the seawall.
Founded in 1987, the nonprofit Swim Across America holds 21 events across the country. It’s raised around $100 million for life-saving immunotherapy treatments and more than 60 scientific grants, including for research at Children’s John Hopkins Medicine Baltimore, Rush University Medical Center Chicago, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center New York.
The San Francisco event has since launching in 2006 raised at least $5.5 million for cancer research at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. This year, local swimmers and volunteers raised over $500,000.
“Everyone swims for a different reason: Some people are swimming in honor of somebody who’s beat cancer, some people swim in memory of someone who’s passed away from cancer, and some people swim for several people,” said Jenna Stevenson, national safety liaison with Swim Across America.
In 2019, over 1.7 million cancer cases were diagnosed in the U.S. and nearly 600,000 died of cancer, according to the latest available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That means for every 100,000 people, 439 new cancer cases were reported and 146 people died that year.
Thomas Wu, a cancer researcher at Bay Area biotech firm Genentech, entered Saturday’s swim with a team of co-workers. It was the first time Wu, a regular swimmer from San Francisco, signed up for a Swim Across America event, and he said he raised $1,000.
“I already spend my career in pursuit of treating cancer, and I wanted to continue that by raising some money and participating in this event.”
Christina Kossa, of Berkeley, joined the swim as part of two-person team called the Albany Adorables. She was there to support a fellow swimmer who survived breast cancer, as well as in memory of a friend who died of a brain tumor in 2016.
Kossa said she remembered staying with her friend until the night she died, and how difficult it was for the family to recover from their loss.
“I’m really hoping that by giving to research, that more outcomes will be like my friend who survived breast cancer,” she said.
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