Korzekwa fights suicide in swim
Hamilton psychiatrist Dr. Marilyn Korzekwa doesn’t just treat and counsel in order to prevent suicide. She gets out there physically to fight it.
Physically, in the sense that she’s immersing herself in a gruelling marathon swim Sunday to raise funds for a nonprofit organization that helps families whose loved ones struggle with mental illness and suicidal susceptibility.
In her latest swim project to raise funds, the 60-year-old is attempting to swim Lake Tahoe in the United States. an arduous and cold 34kilometre lake crossing. The major challenge is the 1,897-metre altitude and the 16-20 C water.
Korzekwa is hoping to raise $10,000 for the Sashbear Foundation, which was created by Etobicoke couple Lynn Courey and Mike Menu in honour of their daughter Sasha, a swimmer who suffered borderline personality disorder and who died by suicide in 2011 at the age of 20.
The foundation focuses on helping families who have loved ones with mental illness by providing a free peer-led, 12-week skills course.
Korzekwa will begin swimming Lake Tahoe on Sunday starting at 9 p.m. at Camp Richardson, Calif. in the south. She expects to finish about 15 to 17 hours later at Hyatt Beach, Nev. in the north. If she makes it, she’ll be the first Canadian to swim the cold lake in a difficult high-altitude area.
Her blog says there will be an 80 per cent solar eclipse Monday at 10:20 a.m. California time, for two minutes while she is doing her swim.
To follow her progress and to read her blog on her training and the swim, go to swimwithmarilyn.blogspot.ca/ or track.rs/Tahoe
You can sponsor her at sashbear.org/en/events-main/events-2/ lake-tahoe-swim
Korzekwa, a semi-retired psychiatrist who still practises, had raised $2,385 by Friday, so she’s got a long way to meet her goal.
Korzekwa, who once worked in psychiatric emergency at St. Joseph’s hospital in Hamilton, specializes in suicidal patients.
Reached in California, she said she was moved to fundraise for the Sashbear Foundation because it furthers the work she does.
“I help patients and they help and train families in the skills they need to communicate effectively.”
This is by far not the first fundraiser the longtime marathon swimmer has undertaken. In 2015, she swan 34 km in the cold Northumberland Strait, touching the provinces of Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and New Brunswick to raise money for Good Shepherd in Hamilton. She has raised $22,000 for Good Shepherd between 2011 and 2014 during various swims.
Korzekwa is an accomplished long-distance swimmer whose achievements include being the first person to swim Lake Ontario in both directions — south to north in 1983 and north to south in 1984.
She is also the first Canadian to complete the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming — the English Channel (2011), the Manhattan Island swim (2014) and the Catalina Channel (2013).
“Lake Ontario was the longest swim,” she said.
The 15 to 17 hours Korzekwa will be in Lake Tahoe will definitely be as challenging, if not more than Lake Ontario, especially because of the high altitude and cold, she said.
“I’m not any younger, either. I was 26 and 27 when I did Lake Ontario.”