NANTUCKET – A swimmer made it 25 miles across Nantucket Sound Friday in just over 12 hours to raise money for cancer programs on Nantucket.
Grant Wentworth, 28, raised $134,000 so Nantucket Cottage Hospital can bring an oncologist to the island from Massachusetts General Hospital each week.
The New York man began the swim from Yarmouth to Nantucket around 4 a.m. from Seagull Beach in Yarmouth and arrived on the island just before 4:30 p.m Friday.
Wentworth partnered with Swim Across America, which was founded in 1987 as a relay swim across Nantucket Sound. Swim Across America supports cancer programs, research, prevention, and treatment with swimming-related fundraisers.
“Swim Across America is a national non-profit that hosts open-water swims and pool swims all over the country to raise money for cancer research and treatment,” said organization president Janel Jorgenson McArdle.
According to Swim Across America’s Facebook page, Wentworth is only the second person to ever swim across Nantucket Sound and the first to do it originating on Cape Cod.
“Grant actually last year did a relay swim with us across the English Channel and I think he got the bug,” said McArdle.
Hats off to this young man, not only for his ability to swim these kinds of distances, but for his fund-raising and concern. The information was not all that publicized, at least I hadn’t seen reference to it.
Sweeney