Swimming for Mental Health

More than three decades ago, my grandfather Dick Kloss made a monumental decision (at least in my eyes) to swim across Lake Huron. A harrowing 65-kilometre (36 hour) swim from Port Sanilac, Michigan to Grand Bend Ontario.  20 years later, I followed in his footsteps and swam the same 65 kilometers (in 26 hours and 3 minutes), raising $22,000 for cancer research along the way. This incredible feat has shaped me both personally and professionally - meeting my wife because of the swim and the birth of our daughter 7 years later are just two of many milestones that this journey provided! For me, swimming is therapeutic and calming. There’s something about being surrounded by water that adds a certain power dynamic between you and nature – it’s almost as if hearing the water rush past your ears is washing life's challenges away.

After taking almost 11 years off from swimming – I returned to the pool in June 2022 to improve my mental and physical health after what was a mentally exhausting couple of years for many people. Although it was hard at first, the three-mornings-a-week swims at my local YMCA helped me reach a place of clarity that had been missing for several years. My motivation returned and a feeling of mental wellness and fulfillment settled over me. This journey back to wellness began after two losses in my life: the passing away of my grandpa (and swim coach) who greatly impacted my life and the loss of a friend to suicide. Realizing that life is short and feeling a need to rediscover my identity and get my own mental health in check,  I took to the pool.

As time passed, I pushed myself to swim further distances - from 1km, then 2km, followed by my longest swim in 11 years – 4km. Stories of mental health struggles, especially those among children, started becoming more frequent. I thought of my 5-year-old daughter, and how much I want to protect her from the darkness and struggle. With each increase in distance I swam, came an increased sense that perhaps there was something else this journey could mean – even if it helped just one person going through a hard time with their own battles. That's when my 5km swim was achieved (the same distance as the longest pool swim I’d completed before swimming across Lake Huron) and plans for much greater undertakings stirred within me: crossing Lake Ontario over August 11th-12th, 2023 to raise awareness and funds for mental health and suicide prevention. I had set myself a lofty goal of raising $50,000 for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada’s largest mental health hospital which sets the standard for care and research and surpassed that goal raising just over $57,000 for CAMH Foundation. Although we fell 13km short of shore, calling the swim 38km and 18 hours into it due to weather we were disappointed but lived to swim another day.

This year we aim to start the swim August 9th 2024 and continue raising money for CAMH Foundation. It will be an incredible personal feat made even more meaningful due to its potential positive impact on others suffering in silence with similar issues around them.