I’ve been very quite on the blog but I have been working hard on putting something really big together. I finally have something concrete to pass on, and now the ball is rolling.
I have decided to attempt to become the first person ever to swim the Oceans Seven, Open Water Swimming’s equivalent to the Seven Summits. The seven swims are seven of the hardest swims in the world, all for different reasons. These seven swims are the Irish Channel, the Cook Strait, the Straits of Gibraltar, the English Channel, the Tsugaru Channel, the Catalina Channel, and the Moloka’i Channel.
At this point I have already completed one, the English Channel. In 2010 I will swim the Catalina Channel in California and the Moloka’i Channel in Hawaii. Once I complete Catalina I will also have completed the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming (English Channel, Catalina Channel, and the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim) which there are currently on 30 people in the world to have done so. After 2010 I will continue crossing swims off the list, one per year, and plan to swim the last swim on my list in 2014.
Also, I am officially a sponsored athlete. My sponsorship, through the Endurance Trust, will allow me to focus on my training and raising money and awareness for Charity. I will be swimming for two causes, Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis and the PLGA Foundation.
Riley Hospital for Children is Indiana's only comprehensive children's hospital, with pediatric specialists in every field of medicine and surgery. Riley’s for Children offers one of the nation's largest and most comprehensive outpatient care facilities for children, the world's largest pediatric sleep disorders center and one of the nation's three largest autism treatment center. Riley’s also offers Indiana's only pediatric burn center, the most comprehensive neonatal unit, including the state's most experienced ECMO program, Indiana's largest and most comprehensive pediatric intensive care unit and is part of the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center – the only National Care Institute-designated patient care center in Indiana. Child Magazine ranked Riley Hospital for Children 11th overall across the country and recognized the Riley neonatal and pulmonary care departments in the top 10 among select specialties. In addition, five specialty programs ranked among the top 30 children's hospitals in the nation by U.S.News & World Report's 2008 edition of America's Best Children's Hospitals. All of the Indiana pediatricians listed in America's Top Doctors, a national consumer publication, have Riley-based practices. Riley was recognized as the nation's best performer in outpatient satisfaction by Arbor Associates.
The PLGA foundation funds research for Pediatric Low Grade Astrocytoma, the most common form of solid brain tumor deaths in children. There is no known cure for PLGA and no easy treatments. The treatments that are available have been the same for 20 years, and up until recently there was virtually no funding for PLGA research.
Tomorrow I will be visiting the Queen of Peace school in Mishawaka to share my marathon swimming experiences with the students and to announce my next plans. My first speaking engagement! This is all very new and exciting for me and I am very happy to have been given this opportunity to share my love for the sport and to make a real difference in the lives of children.
If you are reading this blog via facebook, I encourage you to visit the real blog at swimsevenseas.blogspot.com and become a follower of mine. This will be the only way I can really keep track of how many people are reading my blog.
Here are some links:
Riley Hospital for Children
http://rileychildrenshospital.com/
PLGA Foundation
http://www.fightplga.org/foundation
My Endurance Trust Sponsored Athlete Page, including a link to my First Giving Website Where Online Donations can be made.
http://www.endurancetrust.org/pages/gallery/mallory-mead-br-indianapolis-indiana-br-usa278.php
