I’m here today to support, to keep, to protect our Great Lakes, Swim Drink Fish. So many ask me still every day, “I can’t believe you swim in Lake Ontario!” And I say yes I do! And I want to keep it that way and I want my daughter, she’s nine, I want her to swim here, and I want my dog to be able to go in the water and I want to keep it safe for everyone.

For me what it was, I was following through social media a lot of Madhu’s sunrise swims and having just kind of ventured into open water swimming I kept seeing these pictures of swimming at sunrise so I randomly messaged him, I’d never met him and I said hey what are these sunrise swims? Can I come? So another friend of mine whom you’ll also meet, we came down one morning, met Madhu for the first time and just kind of watched him through his journey to the Straits of Magellan and we just kept coming back.

I started swimming about a year ago when I connected with Madhu, I’m five minutes away from here where I live and knowing that I have my own water right in my backyard I can’t go anywhere else. I do swim in the pool as well but this is my lake, I love it here.