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CTV News
4 days ago
- Sport
- CTV News
Cancer survivor swims 16 kilometres across Lake Winnipeg, plans to finish journey next year
An Alberta man took to the water to swim across Lake Winnipeg to raise funds for cancer research. Jonathon Fenton hit the water Sunday following a one-day delay and managed to swim 16 kilometres of the 26-kilometre length of the lake between Grand Beach and Gimli. 'My shoulders basically gave out,' he said on Monday. 'I couldn't raise them anywhere. I couldn't do the front crawl, so I had to switch to breaststroke, and it was just too slow, and I was running out of time. 'It's an incomplete. It's not a failure. That's the way I've got to look at it.' Fenton, who survived two bouts of cancer, was doing the swim to raise money for CancerCare Manitoba, Health Sciences Centre Foundation and the Alberta Cancer Foundation. He has raised more than $36,000 since he announced the plan for the swim. The original idea was to do the swim on Saturday, but high winds pushed it back a day. They were still recorded at 15 kilometres per hour on Sunday when he jumped in at Grand Beach. 'It was wavy,' he said. 'I mean, I was swimming between the troughs, because there were waves coming from the south and I'm going due west, so I was in the troughs. And so, I couldn't breathe on the left side, getting a mouthful of water. And then at times, I couldn't see the pontoon boat because I was in the trough, you know, and it was going over. 'I felt like a cork in a washing machine. I was getting bounced around. But sure enough, right around 11, it started to settle, and then it got really nice.' Fenton was inspired by Diana Nyad's swim from Cuba to Florida and says he plans to return next year to finish the remainder of his journey. 'It took her a fifth time before she made it to Key West, so now I know what I'm up against.' People who wish to donate to his charitable campaign can do so online. -With files from CTV's Danton Unger and Harrison Shin.
Winnipeg Free Press
02-08-2025
- General
- Winnipeg Free Press
WALTER YARISH
Adjust Text Size: A+ A- WALTER YARISH June 26, 1942 – July 28, 2025 With deep love and sadness, we announce the passing of Walter Yarish, who passed away suddenly in Edmonton, Alberta at the age of 83. Walter was truly the salt of the earth - honest, hardworking, and reliable, and his life reflected integrity, resilience, curiosity, and kindness — values he carried from his childhood on a Manitoba prairie on the family farm near Oakburn, Manitoba, in 1942 — the youngest of nine children — Walter was raised in a household shaped by the strength of immigrant roots. His parents, Ukrainian Catholic settlers, instilled in him the virtues of hard work, respect, and curiosity and intellect led him far beyond the boundaries of the family farm. He valued education, science, history, and was a lifelong reader. He studied at the University of Manitoba, obtaining his Bachelor and Master of Science. Walter met his wife Diane in 1966 and moved to Edmonton, Alberta in 1970, where they created a life rooted in love, family, and meaningful friendships. Here, he began his long, rewarding career as an agrologist with the Alberta government. Walter was passionate about nature, gardening and curling as well as a dedicated community volunteer, contributing to various committees and is survived by his beloved wife, Diane, of 57 wonderful years, his children Leanne, Krista (Scott), grandchildren Hunter, Hayden, and Seaver — who he credited with keeping him young - and his sisters, Elise, Roxy — and many extended family members and friends across Canada. He was predeceased by his siblings Mary, Bill, Rose, Joe, Phyllis, and Nick, and his nephew keeping with Walter's wishes and nature, a Celebration of Life will be held to honour his life and legacy in September 8, 2:00 pm at Hainstock's Funeral Home, 9810 34th Ave, Edmonton, AB T6E6L1. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Alberta Cancer Foundation or the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Aug 02, 2025
CTV News
01-08-2025
- Health
- CTV News
He beat cancer twice. Now he wants to swim across Lake Winnipeg
Jonathon Fenton looks out at Lake Winnipeg on August 1, 2025. (Danton Unger/CTV News Winnipeg) An Alberta man plans to swim across Lake Winnipeg to raise funds for cancer research—research he says has saved his life twice. Jonathon Fenton, 61, is planning to swim from Grand Beach to Gimli—a 26-kilometre swim expected to take him about 10 hours. It's all part of a fundraiser he is calling 'Jonny's Big Swim'. 'I'm doing it to celebrate five and a half years after my stem cell transplant, the second time I had non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma,' Fenton told CTV News. Jonathon Fenton Jonathon Fenton is seen in hospital while battling cancer. (Jonathon Fenton) It was 1999 when Fenton's doctor discovered a tumour the size of a football. 'My only experience with cancer up until then was my mom dying of it when I was 10 years old. So the immediate thought is, 'Oh, you have cancer. Okay, I'm out,'' he said. 'You think you're done, but you're not.' After chemotherapy, Fenton lived cancer-free for 20 years. Then in 2019, Fenton discovered another tumour, launching him into another battle for his life. He won that battle too. 'It wouldn't have happened without the research. So I think you just got to keep going. Go for the next breakthrough,' he said. So far Fenton, who was born and raised in Manitoba, has raised about $22,000 for CancerCare Manitoba, the Health Sciences Centre Foundation and the Alberta Cancer Foundation. 'They all played a part in the double cancer journey,' he said. Jonathon Fenton Jonathon Fenton, 61, speaks with CTV Winnipeg about his plan to swim from Grand Beach to Gimli to raise money for cancer research. (Danton Unger/CTV News Winnipeg) But why swim across Lake Winnipeg? Fenton said he got the idea while watching a movie on Diana Nyad, a woman who at the age of 64 successfully swam 180 kilometres from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida. 'It just sort of hit me like a bolt. I could do that across Lake Winnipeg. It's only 26 (kilometres). There's no sharks, there's no jellyfish, no man-o'war, no shipping channel or a shipping lane. How hard could that be?' After a year of training, Fenton plans to begin his swim on Saturday as long as the weather cooperates. He hopes his story will encourage others who are going through the same fight he did. 'I just want to show them, if an old geezer can get into the lake—I don't know if I'm going to make it, but at least I'll try—after two bouts of it, you know, for someone in their 20s, 30s, younger than me, maybe I'll be okay.' More details about Fenton's swim and fundraiser can be found on the Jonny's Big Swim website.
Winnipeg Free Press
28-07-2025
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Two-time cancer survivor plans fundraising swim from Victoria Beach to Gimli
Jon Fenton remembers being at Victoria Beach as a child, thinking it would be impossible to swim from one side of Lake Winnipeg to the other. Decades later, the 61-year-old will attempt to prove he was wrong by tackling the waves to raise money for medical research. Fenton successfully battled cancer twice and now wants to use the 26-kilometre swim across the lake to give patients hope. SUPPLIED Jon Fenton, 61, hopes to raise $75,000 and donate $25,000 apiece to the CancerCare Manitoba Foundation, Health Sciences Centre Foundation and the Alberta Cancer Foundation, by swimming across Lake Winnipeg from Victoria Beach to Gimli in August. 'If they see an old geezer getting into the water to attempt to cross a lake, maybe they'll think, 'If he can go through it twice, maybe I'll be all right,'' he told the Free Press Thursday. Fenton hopes to raise $75,000 and donate $25,000 apiece to the CancerCare Manitoba Foundation, Health Sciences Centre Foundation and the Alberta Cancer Foundation. While living in Japan with his wife Laura and three children in 1999, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma a type of cancer that targets white blood cells and the body's immune system. The family decided to return to Manitoba, where he was treated at Health Sciences Centre. After undergoing treatment, he was cancer-free for 20 years, but it returned in 2020 when he was living in Diamond Valley, 40 kilometres south of Calgary. 'I thought 'Well, I've had a nice 20-year run, but definitely this has got to be game over,'' he said. But he qualified for a stem-cell transplant in Calgary that eliminated all signs of the disease. When he celebrated his fifth-year anniversary last year for kicking his second bout, he wanted to do something to give back so research can continue discovering new treatments. 'We're far from done. Let's keep it going. Let's get the next big breakthrough, and the next one, and the next one. We can't really give up,' he said. Fenton got the idea for the fundraiser when he and his wife watched a 2023 film Nyad, which told the story of Diana Nyad's multiple attempts — the fifth, in 2013 at the age of 64, taking 53 hours was ultimately successful — to swim from Cuba to Florida. While he's previously competed in triathlons and swam up to four kilometres in races, getting across Lake Winnipeg from Victoria Beach to Gimli will be a far bigger challenge, he said, adding he started training for the swim in January 2024 and has since racked up 176 kilometres in total. He said there are parallels to be drawn between the challenge to come and the health journeys he's travelled: when someone begins cancer treatment, it's difficult to stay positive because of the toll it takes both physically and mentally. SUPPLIED Taking the process week by week has helped him — then and now; if he tried to think about the treatment or the 26-kilometre swim in their entirety, he couldn't 'wrap his mind around it,' he said. 'It's easy to say, hard to do, but it helps. Just bite off little chunks and then you're through your cancer treatment, and hopefully I'm on the other side of the lake,' he said. 'It's a long game, hang tough and take it week by week.' Fenton is hoping to jump in the lake between Aug. 2 and 12, but it will depend on how much wildfire smoke is lingering in the air, weather conditions on the lake and the severity of blue-green algae blooms, which have caused significant environmental damage and produce toxins that pose severe health risks. Weekday Mornings A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day. If conditions don't allow him to attempt the feat, he said he'll take another crack next year. 'I don't want to be a new verse in an Alanis Morissette song: 'isn't it ironic/don't you think?/a two-time cancer survivor/expires in the drink,'' Fenton sang with a laugh. 'I don't want that verse coming out.' Others have successfully made it across Lake Winnipeg. Friends Jacques Marcoux and Patrick Peacock were the last to successfully try it, completing a 31-kilometre swim from Victoria Beach to Gimli in about 14 hours in August 2011. In August 1955, 20-year-old Kathie McIntosh became the first to swim across, making her way from Grand Marais to Winnipeg Beach in a little more than 16 1/2 hours.
CTV News
19-07-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Over 1,700 cyclists pedal to raise awareness and funds for Alberta Cancer Foundation
Over 1,700 cyclists prepare to start the Enbridge Tour for Cancer Saturday morning in Strathmore. More than 1,700 cyclists -- many of them cancer patients or survivors -- are taking part in the Enbridge Tour Alberta for Cancer event this weekend. Riders will pedal either 65 or 100 kilometres a day to raise awareness and money for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. Funds will support the more than 24,000 Albertans who are diagnosed with cancer each year. This year's tour has already raised more than $9 million -- and counting. The money is directly invested into cancer research including groundbreaking clinical trials, patient support programs and enhanced care delivered at 17 Alberta cancer centres. Enbridge Tour Alberta for Cancer Cyclists prepare to start the 2025 event, which has already raised $9 million. (Courtesy Enbridge Tour Alberta for Cancer) 'This tour is a celebration of life,' said Alberta Cancer Foundation CEO Wendy Beauchesne, in a release. 'With a message that no matter how difficult the journey may be, you are not alone. 'I am so grateful for all our riders and volunteers that show what's possible when our community stands united.' Enbridge, which has sponsored the event since 2010, entered a team of 158 cyclists who have collectively raised more than $825,000. Over that period of time, Enbridge has raised more than $110 million to improve cancer care in Alberta. Enbridge Tour Alberta for Cancer Funds raised go to cancer research, patient support programs and enhanced care at Alberta's 17 cancer centres. (Enbridge Tour Alberta for Cancer) 'If feels good to be on this purpose-driven cause, not just for my own cancer journey, but for everyone impacted by this disease,' said Max Chan, Enbridge senior vice-president of operations and engineering liquid pipelines, who is also the chair of the board of trustees for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. 'I ride as a survivor, and for everyone still facing that fight. What keeps me coming back is the amazing community and powerful sense of hope that stems from this event.' The event started Saturday morning at the Strathmore Stampede Grounds.
