Needham Woman Swims for Cancer

Cancer has affected millions of people in the United States, and while great strides have been made in how this disease is treated, it is still very much a dilemma that faces an enormous amount of people.

Swim Across America has been organizing events across the country since 1987 to help raise money for cancer research, and Saturday was the 15th annual DCR Nantasket Beach one-mile swim to benefit the David B. Perini, Jr. Quality of Life Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Among the more than 80 swimmers gathering in Hull for the event was 19-year-old Needham resident Katie Adams, who received $1,850 in pledges to participate in the event.

“I was determined to be one of the highest fundraisers on my team,” said Adams, who participated with 10 other people, all with some connection to the Trinity College (CT) swim team, of which she is a member. “It was just a goal for me. I was just determined.”

Adams is a rising sophomore at Trinity, where she usually competes in the 50-100m freestyle events. She knew that swimming one mile would be out of her normal comfort zone, but having participated in this same event as a 13-year-old, she had a sense that it would be easier this time around.

“It’s going to be a big challenge, but I’m excited,” she said the day before the event. “That’s obviously a lot longer [than her usual distance], but it’ll be over in about 30 minutes, so I’m excited.”

Adams is spending this summer on Nantucket, where she is
teaching swimming lessons to young children. She came up to this area just to participate in the event. She also organized, along with a friend, two road races to raise money for cancer when she was in just the fourth grade.

“I lost my father to cancer, so I’ve always been really into cancer fundraising,” she said.

A lifelong competitive swimmer, Adams first swam for a team at the local YMCA when she was seven years old. She continued to get better as she got older, and she swam for the Westminster School in Connecticut before enrolling at Trinity and joining the swim team there. Now she is finding a way to help others using the skills she has acquired through hours and hours of practice and training.

So it was only natural that a person who gives back to their community by raising money to find a cure to a deadly disease would also want to help teach kids a useful lifelong skill.

Adams still has a ways to go in her college career, so little is known about what the future holds for her. But one thing is for certain, according to Adams.

“I’ll definitely keep doing this for years to come,” she said.