Saanich-based swimmer Jill Yoneda managed to raise over $140,000 for Canuck Place Children's Hospice after attempting a record-breaking, 109-kilometre swim across the Strait of Georgia.
On Friday, Aug. 9, Yoneda set out for the swim in support of the hospice, which cares for 920 children with life-threatening illnesses, and in memory of her cousin, Joshua, who died from a malignant tumour in his spinal cord.
She said the first stretch of the swim went well and she was actually three hours ahead of schedule, and within a few hours of her swim she had already passed her fundraising goal of $50,000.
"The water was warm, it was beautiful, it was calm," she said. "The beginning of the swim was absolutely beautiful. The first eight hours, couldn't have gone more perfect, and at one point, I was swimming really close to shore, just to stay away from the current. I was swimming over a bed of sand dollars and seashells, and I even dove down to the bottom to pick up a sand dollar for my boat captain."
After 15 hours in the water, Yoneda's swim was cut short due to health complications, "but the impact she made was epic nonetheless," noted a release from Canuck Place.
"As night set in, I just felt my chest start to tighten a little bit, and I started coughing. I wasn't too concerned about it, but then as this went on, It was a little bit harder for me to catch my breath," said Yoneda.
Her doctor, Kelly Heape, gave her a few puffs of an inhaler and a steroid medication, but as the hours went on, her breathing difficulties continued to escalate.
"At about the 15-hour mark, I just could not catch my breath. Every time I turned on to my front and came up for air, it almost felt like I was sipping air through a straw. I couldn't take a deep breath, and so I floated on my back for a minute and tried and catch my breath, but my chest just felt tighter and tighter to the point where it actually kind of scared me," she said.
Heape eventually pulled Yoneda on board a boat for a check-up near Crofton, where an ultrasound showed that she had fluid building up in her lungs, called pulmonary edema. The team decided that she should rest overnight and reassess the next day. There was still fluid in her lungs the following day, so the team decided to take her by boat closer to Vancouver so she could swim the last stretch of the journey.
On Aug. 10, Yoneda reached Jericho Beach and was met by fans, Canuck Place staff and volunteers, and family members who were celebrating her "incredible feat."
"Even though I didn't finish or complete the whole swim, Joshua's little sister paddleboarded beside me at the shore. Having her beside me, and then seeing her mom, Joshua's mom on shore, and seeing my mom and brother on shore, and family and friends, it just made it all worth it for me," she said. "The disappointment that I felt in myself for not being able to complete the whole swim got washed away under my feelings of just being able to do something good for the community, keeping Joshua's memory alive, and just having the support and love of my family and friends made it all worthwhile."
As of Aug. 14, Yoneda managed to raise over $71,000 through online donations, and the Vancouver Canucks announced on Twitter that hey will match her donations.
"I'm just a simple person living a quiet life in Victoria, and to have somebody like the Canucks actually mention my name blew me out of the water.
How do they know who I am? Like it's just crazy to me that an NHL team could actually shout-out my name and match my donation," she said.
Since the swim, she has been recovering and her chest still feels tight, but she expects to make a full recovery.
"Nothing's gonna stop me, I want to keep doing these swims. I really believe in using these swims as a platform to raise money for a good cause that I believe in," she said.
She has no hard plans on what her next expedition will be, but is thinking of possibly swimming the English Channel in the future.
