A cancer survivor who set out to swim across Lake Winnipeg has completed the roughly 12-hour journey, raising tens of thousands of dollars for cancer organizations in Manitoba and Alberta. Jonathon Fenton, 62, completed the nearly 26-kilometre swim Sunday, departing from Gimli at about 7:30 a.m. He said the trek lasted eight minutes shy of 12 hours, before he reached the Grand Beach shoreline. Fenton said the first several hours went relatively smoothly, but conditions became more difficult as the wind picked up and waves increased. “With these waves, I was in the trough—they were coming so quickly,” he said. “In the trough, I couldn’t see the boat, and I couldn’t see the target shoreline.” At times, Fenton said he considered giving up. “I’d swim for 20 minutes. I look up. It’s exactly the same. The shoreline’s the same size,” he said. Fenton said he also dealt with shoulder pain during the swim, eventually relying primarily on his right arm. The former Winnipegger who now resides south of Calgary had previously attempted the crossing last year, swimming about 16 kilometres before his shoulders gave out. “I just said, ‘You know what, this is not over. I’m going to come back. I want to do this. I really want to finish it.’” Fenton said his motivation for taking on the challenge goes back to his own experiences with cancer. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 1999 while living in Japan. Fenton then returned to Manitoba for treatment at the Health Sciences Centre and underwent six months of chemotherapy. Two decades later, in 2019, Fenton said the cancer returned. The following year, he said he underwent a stem cell transplant at Calgary’s Tom Baker Cancer Centre. He said the idea for the swim came on his 60th birthday when he and his wife watched Nyad, a film about long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad’s attempt to swim from Cuba to Key West, Fla. “Something just struck me like an arrow. Just, ‘Man, I can do that across Lake Winnipeg,’” Fenton said. He decided to turn the challenge into a fundraiser—named “Jonny’s Big Swim”—supporting the Health Sciences Centre Foundation, CancerCare Manitoba Foundation and the Alberta Cancer Foundation. The fundraiser brought in about $42,000 last year, despite Fenton not completing the crossing. This year, he said donations have reached approximately $56,000 and are still coming in. He said one Winnipeg couple who donated last year pledged $200 per kilometre before doubling the amount after learning he had completed the swim. During Sunday’s swim, Fenton stayed in the water during breaks, holding onto a pontoon boat that followed nearby while receiving energy gels, water and Gatorade approximately every half-hour. Fenton said he also drew motivation from cancer patients facing difficult treatments and procedures, such as a bone marrow biopsy he underwent. “I just thought, ‘You know what? There’s people actually having this done now. So, you know, this hurts, but I can still do it,” he said. “That helped me keep going. Just thinking of all the people that are really going through a rough time right now, a lot tougher than swimming.” He said the swim is also a lesson in approaching seemingly overwhelming challenges one step at a time. “You cannot process it,” he said of facing a lengthy cancer treatment or a 26-kilometre swim all at once. “Just one week at a time, one kilometre at a time, one stroke at a time. And if you can compartmentalize it like that, it really helps.” His message to people facing a cancer diagnosis—don’t give up. Having completed his goal, Fenton said he has no plans to attempt the crossing again next year. “I’m tapping out,” he said. “I really wanted to check it off.”
