A Date With the Lake

September 11, 2008 -- On August 15, at 4:30 in the afternoon, fire fighter Shaun Chisholm jumped into the waters of Lake Ontario at Niagara. Just over 19 hours later, he climbed up a ladder in Toronto. Those are the straightforward facts. However, the story behind this swim is anything but straightforward.

Shaun is an ordinary guy, a family man, a father of two and a dedicated fire fighter. In 2007, he participated in a long swim in Muskoka that got him thinking about tackling the ultimate marathon swim to raise money for an important charity, the Hospital for Sick Children.

In the early 1950s, marathon swimming was a very popular sport. One of the best of the marathoners was Marilyn Bell, who in 1954 became the first to swim the lake from Niagara to the Toronto shoreline at the age of only 16. It took her 24 hours to complete the swim and capture the admiration of all Canadians.

Since then, many have tried and many have failed. The lake has a wicked ability to invert after a north wind and temperatures can drop from the 70s to 50 degrees or lower. Combined with treacherous waves and a contrary current from the Humber River, the 52 kilometer distance has never been an easy one to conquer.

Years ago, when Shaun was 10 or 11, he was able to swim the furthest at camp – more than two miles.

Thirty years later, he spent the winter leading up to his date with the lake swimming thousands of lengths in an indoor pool. Months of training culminated in with a super long swim of seven hours.

“The marathon training sessions that test strength and endurance were essential preparation for the challenge of swimming 50 kilometers in cold, dark and often treacherous conditions,” says Shaun. “But physical training was only part of it,” he adds.

Marathon swimmers need good planning and a lot of determination and dedication to survive. For Shaun, that determination was fueled by the fact that his marathon swim raised more than $24,000 for the Burn Unit at the Hospital for Sick Children.

As a fire fighter, Shaun is familiar with the devastating effects that burns can have on children, making the Sick Kids Burn Unit a natural recipient of his fundraising efforts. His determination to beat the lake became even stronger when he and his crew toured the Sick Kids Burn Unit and saw first-hand how the money raised was used.

Shaun’s fundraising efforts were recognized by the Sick Kids Foundation President Michael O'Mahoney, who, in a letter told Shaun, "Your support of the Burn Unit will give our patients and their families the best resources to cope with and recover from a burn injury. When a gift is reinforced by passion, energy and commitment, it transcends everyday philanthropy. Yours is such a gift, and for that I am very grateful."

Shaun hit the water in the late afternoon of August 15. Soon after, storms moved across the lake. A few hours later, Shaun was swimming through high waves and treacherous rollers created by the winds from those storms. The waves came out of the north – head on – pushing Shaun back and making him work much harder, earlier on, than he had planned.

Sometime after midnight, the water calmed and Shaun’s speed picked back up, but the westerly winds remained strong, pushing the boats and the swimmer to the east, forcing him to swim further to the west and adding extra miles to his intended distance.

When dawn arrived, Shaun had swam into an inversion of cold water. The water dropped from 68 degrees to 58-60 degrees. If the water temperature dropped any more he would become hypothermic and the swim would be over. To Shaun’s credit, he got through the inversion, but as he approached the city, he faced the Humber current coming straight at him. Somehow, exhausted as he was from fighting the waves in the night, he managed to power through, and by noon, approached his intended destination. Shaun had a 100 reasons to quit, but he didn’t - he persevered.

It had been 19 hours and 20 minutes since he started his journey. As he climbed out, he was greeted by friends, co-workers and the press.

“It was by far the toughest thing I ever did,” says Shaun.