Beginning Friday morning, a Victoria woman is setting out to swim from the capital to a beach in Vancouver without stopping.
Jill Yoneda is doing it to help raise money for the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice.
“I’ve been a swimmer my whole life. I could swim before I could walk,” the 49-year-old said. “My Mom had a drowning experience as a child so she made sure we could all swim. I took to it like a fly to food.”
Yoneda was on Canada’s freediving team for several years but was forced to retire due to a degenerative disc disease. Overall, Yoneda has endured nearly two dozen surgeries, making this attempt all the more challenging.
“I missed being in the ocean when I retired from that, so I just started swimming in the ocean and gradually increased my distances more and more every year until I found myself literally on a whim swimming from Port Angeles to Victoria in 2017 and hooked after that.”
The swim between Port Angeles and Victoria was about 35 kilometres.
“I’ve had many medical challenges I’ve overcome, but with each challenge, it just inspires me to persevere and overcome whatever obstacles are put in my place.”
In addition to helping raise money for Canuck Place, Yoneda is also doing this to honour a late family member.
“In memory of my beautiful cousin, Joshua Yoneda, who died two years ago. He was in his last year of med school at UBC and developed a little limp in his leg and then 10 months later, he died of a very rare form of cancer,” she said.
Jill Yoneda is swimming from Victoria to Vancouver to help raise money for the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice. (Courtesy Canuck Place)
“I remember hanging out with him in his hospital room and he had dreams of wanting to be on my next swim with me as my doctor, so this swim is mightily important to me and I’ll be holding his memory close the whole time.”
Joshua was 27 when he died. “It was a huge blow to our family. He was the kindest, most genuine, beautiful, gentle soul I’ve ever known.”
Yoneda has been preparing for this event for a while but admits as much as it’s a physical challenge, it can also be very tough on her mental health.
“I don’t know if I’m so much nervous, I’m more worried about letting people down if I don’t make this swim and disappointing myself as well. I’ve got such high hopes. I’m praying to the Gods of the sea that we have calm wind, calm waters, and beautiful sun out there.”
Leaving Brentwood Bay Friday morning, and is hoping to arrive at either Jericho or Sunset beaches on Sunday afternoon.
The swim is non-stop, but she will have a nearby boat with a support group just in case.
“I’ll be treading water for one to five minutes, have something quick to eat or drink, and then I keep going.”
As for going to the bathroom: “I pee in my wet suit, as for other bowel issues — this will be an interesting aspect of this swim.”
Canuck Place relies heavily on donations, with only 30 per cent of funding coming from the government. More about Yoneda’s efforts can be found here.