In early September, Andrew Tottenham will jump into his local swimming pool. He’ll plug in his earphones — his playlist includes the Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, and Nina Simone — and start swimming.
Tottenham will swim in memory of family members he’s lost to cancer. He’ll swim for the comfort of those afflicted with the insidious disease.
A gaming consultant who writes the Tottenham Report for CDC Gaming, Tottenham from Sept. 10-12 will participate in the U.K.-based Swimathon. He has committed to swimming 15,000 meters (approximately 9.3 miles) to raise funds for Cancer Research UK and Marie Curie by way of The Swimathon Foundation. Funds are raised by donations to Andrew’s JustGiving page, which is currently at 50% of his GBP£2,000 (US$2,737) goal.
Tottenham lost his father, a sister, and a brother-in-law to cancer, and his father-in-law has chronic leukemia.
“The number of people that I talk to that have cancer, the people we know who have cancer that was detected too late … it impacts so many people,” Tottenham says. “There are people who survive and get past it, but the treatment is grueling. Chemotherapy is not a walk in the park.”
The Swimathon Foundation encourages the public to raise funds for charities via swimming, and currently partners with Cancer Research UK and Marie Curie.
Cancer Research UK raises funds for scientists, doctors and nurses battling cancer and provides information about the disease to the public. Marie Curie is an end-of-life charity that provides frontline nursing, hospice care, support lines, and information to patients in critical condition and their families.
“The end-of-life care that organizations like Marie Curie provide are essential,” Tottenham says. “My sister was in hospice and they were absolutely incredible the way they looked after her.”
Tottenham swam competitively as a child but gave up the sport because he stayed “very small and I was competing with guys a foot taller than me.” He’s been training four days per week at a local pool at 50 minutes per session, with the goal of completing 5,000 meters each day of the Swimathon in approximately one hour and twenty-three minutes.
In last year’s Swimathon, Tottenham was one of the Top 5 individual fundraisers.
“It’s something I enjoy doing, mad as it may seem, thrashing up and down in the pool,” he says. “If it can be put to help, it’s a good thing.”
