The following piece is a guest column written by a member of the Sun City West community highlighting a special event benefiting Mayo Clinic Cancer Research.
By Barbara Sloan
SCW Swim Team Coach
Co-Chair, Swim Across America-Phoenix
As the coach of the Sun City West Masters Swim Team and Adult Learn to Swim Instructor, I’ve always believed that swimming builds more than fitness—it builds community. Our swimmers share early mornings, tough sets, laughter on the deck, and the kind of encouragement that carries over into life beyond the pool. That sense of community is exactly why I am both swimming in and co-chairing the inaugural Swim Across America – Phoenix event benefiting Mayo Clinic Cancer Research.
For me, this event is deeply personal.
Within our own Sun City West Masters family, three of our swimmers are currently fighting cancer. Two have already faced the disease and survived—stronger, determined, and inspiring to everyone around them. Another teammate is in the midst of a Stage 4 cancer battle. When someone in your lane, someone you train beside week after week, faces a fight like that, it becomes more than a statistic. It becomes a call to action.
That is why I’m swimming.
Swimming has taught many of us perseverance—how to keep going even when the set feels impossible. Cancer patients and their families live that reality every day. Through Swim Across America Phoenix, we have an opportunity to channel the strength of our swimming community into something bigger than ourselves: funding research that brings hope, better treatments, and ultimately cures.
All funds raised from this event support cancer research at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Mayo’s work is advancing new therapies and improving survival rates for patients around the world. By swimming and organizing this event, we’re helping fuel the research that can change lives—including the lives of people we know and love.
Our Sun City West Masters team is swimming for teammates, for families, and for every person who has been touched by cancer. We’re swimming for survivors. We’re swimming for those still in the fight. And we’re swimming with hope that the research we support today will lead to the cures of tomorrow.
That is why I’m in the water—and why this event matters so much. Will you join us in this fight?
Register and learn more: swimacrossamerica.org/phoenix
