As a PhD student in cancer immunology at Brown University, Providence resident Payton De La Cruz knows first-hand how important philanthropy is to cancer research. When the opportunity arose to support the national nonprofit that funds her work at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island’s Program in Women’s Oncology, Payton jumped — or dove — at the chance to “make waves” in the fight against cancer.
“I’ve swum recreationally my entire life, so I was excited to learn that Swim Across America funds the Woman and Infants Hospital labs I work in under Drs. Kate Grive and Nicole James,” said De La Cruz. “Swim Across America’s mission aligns with my values, and its support of our translational research in early-stage breast and gynecologic cancer has been vital.”
De La Cruz sits on Swim Across America’s Rhode Island event planning committee. Earlier this year, she attended the Swim Across America national leadership summit and subsequently joined the associate board, which supports the nonprofit’s mission by fostering student and community engagement through initiatives such as the new College Ambassador Program. At this year’s Rhode Island Swim, she will volunteer on the beach before and after she dives in to swim a mile with the One Fin Tunas team captained by Dr. David Edmonson.
“Swim Across America’s annual grant literally supports everything I do, not just supplies and equipment,” said De La Cruz. “Those funds enabled me to join the lab in 2021 as a full-time graduate student starting a new project on triple-negative breast cancer and immunotherapy. I’m grateful for this experience and proud to be part of the next generation of cancer researchers supported by Swim Across America.”
Since 2010, Swim Across America’s open water charity swim in Rhode Island has raised more than $2 million for cancer research at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island. These funds helped researchers in the Program in Women’s Oncology Center for Biomarkers & Emerging Technology discover a biomarker for ovarian cancer and introduce to clinical practice an algorithm that estimates with specificity the risk of ovarian cancer in women with a pelvic mass. This test is now used worldwide and is a game changer for women with ovarian cancer, which is notoriously difficult to diagnose at an early stage when it is most treatable. To learn more, see Women & Infants Hospital’s impact statement at https://bit.ly/saa-ri-wih23.
Charity Swim Event Details
Swim Across America’s 2023 Rhode Island swim kicks off Saturday, September 9, at 9:30 a.m., with a celebration ceremony followed by ¼-mile, ½-mile, and 1-mile swim waves totaling 650 swimmers. Attending Olympians include Block Cancer founder Elizabeth Beisel, Swim Across America – Rhode Island co-director Alex Meyer, Swim Across America COO Janel Jorgensen McArdle, Swim Across America vice president of partnerships and former world record holder Craig Beardsley, and this year’s event emcee Eric Wunderlich. Women & Infants Hospital reps will include president & COO Shannon Sullivan, Program in Women’s Oncology director Dr. Paul DiSilvestro, Swim Across America-funded principal investigators Kate Grive and Nicole James and others who will staff a cancer information booth.
Swim Across America was founded in 1987 with its first open water event in Long Island Sound. Since that time, the nonprofit organization has raised more than $100 million to fight cancer. In its 36 years of making waves to fight cancer, more than 100,000 swimmers and 150 Olympians have swum the circumference of the earth three times, uniting a movement to fight cancer that has created a groundswell of support spanning all generations. Today, more than 24 communities hold open water swims and hundreds of charity pool swims each year, from Nantucket to under the Golden Gate Bridge, which support innovative cancer research, detection and patient programs.
About Swim Across America
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