by James Meehan
This Saturday, July 26, island resident Natalie Thompson will put on her familiar Swim Across America – Nantucket swim cap and dive off Jetties Beach into Nantucket Sound for a four-mile open-water course, all to make waves to fight cancer. Thompson has been a participant of the Swim Across America – Nantucket swim every year since the swim started in 2013. She has worked every job at the swim: setup crew, safety kayaker, “angel” swimmer, and, for the past five events, she has been a four-mile swimmer. This year’s swim is different though, and Natalie’s strokes will carry a deeper weight. This year Natalie swims in memory of her father, who passed away from stage 4 renal cancer in June 2024. She also swims in gratitude for the health of her wife Cassie, who also battled cancer with a diagnosis of ocular melanoma in 2019.
Natalie first joined Swim Across America – Nantucket to honor her grandmother, who fought breast cancer. As the years went by, Natalie remained involved, not just because she loved to swim, but because cancer hit too close to home with Cassie’s and then her dad’s diagnosis.
“June 2019 changed why I swim for the rest of my life. My wife was diagnosed with ocular melanoma at 33-years-old. We had two young boys at the time, and suddenly, we were facing cancer head-on,” shared Natalie. “Eight hours after Cassie was first diagnosed we attended a Swim Across America event, and I knew we had a support system like no other. No one at the event knew of her diagnosis, but I left having hope that we would make it through it all. That was the first summer I participated in the 4-mile swim, and it was even more impactful having my wife as my kayaker.”
Natalie also noted that, “Having Swim Across America – Nantucket gear or wearing a Swim Across America t-shirt is a badge of honor on this island. We swim for our family, friends, and neighbors we see every day, so we can make their fight easier. My dad’s chemotherapy infusions and Cassie’s follow-up care were able to be done on-island because of money this event raises. Four-miles in the water is the least I can do to keep that lifeline open.”
The July 26 swim marks the 13th annual swim for Swim Across America – Nantucket. Swim options range from a fun Kids Splash for ages six to 11, to quarter-, half-, and one-mile swims, a two-by-two-mile relay, and the headline four-mile swim. A virtual “SAA My Way” option lets supporters participate virtually from anywhere in the world. Proceeds fund oncology services at Nantucket Cottage Hospital and Palliative and Supportive Care of Nantucket, and support glioblastoma research at Mass General Cancer Center in Boston: programs that allow many patients to stay close to home while receiving worldclass treatment. Since 2013, Swim Across America – Nantucket has raised more than $5.5 million for its local beneficiaries—money that is raised locally stays local.
Event co-directors Jill Roethke and Jim Pignato said the swim’s impact is woven into daily island life. “When someone here has a cancer diagnosis, they know they can now get treated right here on the island,” Jill Roethke said. “Natalie and her family’s story shows how our community rallies so no one fights solo.” Her two sons, now 11 and 9, have grown up handing out towels at the finish line and cheering as their mother emerges from the water.
“It’s a special moment every year when they watch me finish,” Natalie said. “They know I swim for their grampie and their mom.”
Nationally, Swim Across America has generated more than $100 million for cancer research since its founding 1987 and has helped fund clinical trials that contributed to FDA-approved immunotherapies such as Keytruda, Opdivo, Yervoy and Tecentriq. Recently, Swim Across America was one of the funders of the breakthrough clinical trials at Memorial Sloan Kettering that showed immunotherapy alone could successfully treat certain types of cancer. Swim Across America also recently announced two first-of-its-kind gene editing innovation grants, awarded to Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute that supports the work of novel gene and base editing techniques used in advanced cancer research, including targeted therapies, immunotherapies and cellular therapies, with the hope that these grants accelerate better, safer and more effective treatments. The nonprofit now supports more than 60 research projects each year and has 10 named Swim Across America Labs at major institutions.
Swimmers, boaters, land volunteers, and donors can join or support the Nantucket event at swimacrossamerica.org/nantucket. “We’re a community on a little island making sure cancer patients spend their precious time with loved ones instead of traveling for care,” Natalie noted. “Every stroke on July 26 will move us closer to a day when no family has to make that journey at all.”
To learn more about the Swim Across America – Nantucket open water swim on July 26, visit swimacrossamerica.org/nantucket or follow on Instagram @ssanantucket.
