Hope_swim

Jeff Green | Aug 06, 2009

Greg Ansley with Hope swimmers Katie and Theresa Procter and their brother Luke at Oso Beach on Saturday after the sisters’ successful three kilometre swim for the Canadian Cancer Society

On August 1, Theresa and Katie Procter were greeted by cheers and applause from cottage owners and swimmers at the public beach in Sharbot Lake as they strode ashore, having successfully completed their three kilometre Hope Swim in support of the Canadian Cancer Society.

Like many families, the Procters have been directly affected by cancer and have lost two family members to the disease. Their grandmother succumbed to the illness before the two sisters were born and their mother’s sister also passed away at an early age.

Theresa and Katie planned the swim after having missed participating in the annual Relay for Life cancer walk. Both are avid swimmers and felt a marathon swim would be something they both could achieve.

Theresa, 22, just completed her fourth year at the University of Guelph studying animal biology and Katie, 23, is just three months into her new job as a nurse at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.

Katie admitted to being “a bit nervous” prior to the swim. She’d been shut out of Toronto pools due to the strike there and therefore missed out on any pre-swim training. Theresa, on the other hand, had been swimming regularly in Guelph leading up to Saturday’s swim. That being said, they planned to swim side by side the entire way.

Two boats of supporters, including their mother, Wendy, Norm Landry and Claire Macfarlane-England, followed the swimmers from the boat launch at Sharbot Lake Provincial Park to their destination at Oso Beach, which they reached in just one hour and 24 minutes.

During the swim, the sisters’ personal PR team, consisting of their brother Luke and Katie’s fiancée Greg Ansley, were stationed at Oso Beach making the large crowd of beach goers aware of the event and taking some last minute pledges.

Grateful for the calm and sunny weather, the two sisters completed the swim much faster than they had anticipated and with little difficulty. According to Katie, “Those frequent half-kilometre swims at Black Lake during our childhoods obviously paid off.” Both felt confident they had surpassed their $500 goal.

After completing the swim both seemed relaxed, hardly taxed by their efforts, and invigorated. In fact, they were already discussing how to improve their signage for next year‘s swim. Both hoped that their busy schedules would not interfere with their making the swim again next summer.

Anyone interested in making a pledge can still do so until August 15 on the web at convio.cancer.ca/goto/sharbotlakeswim