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12 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday July 28, 2006 · ROHDE · MEPHISTO · DORNDORF · BIRKENSTOCK · DANIEL HECHTER · ROMIKA · PIKOLINOS · REIKER · ROHDE MEPHISTO www.oakvillebeaver.com · ROHDE · MEPHISTO · DORNDORF · BIRKENSTOCK · DANIEL HECHTER · ROMIKA · PIKOLIOS · REIKER · ROHDE · MEPHISTO Clearance Sale Entire Stock Reduced Swimmers tackle Severn River By Wilma Blokhuis OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF · ROHDE · MEPHISTO · DORNDORF · BIRKENSTOCK ·DANIEL HECHTER ·ROMIKA · PIKOLINOS ·REIKER · ROHDE · M E P H I S T O MEPHISTO, BIRKENSTOCK, VIKING ROHDE, RIEKER, ROMIKA, 10 to 60% off Reg. 75.00 Now $49.95 $ Reg. $56.00 Now $19.95 1681 FINFAR COURT, MISSISSAUGA Mon.-Sat. INGEBORG'S Hours:Sun. 11 to 49 to 5 WAREHOUSE (905) 823-7415 Debbie Bang and her two sons Eric and Mark, plus their friends Kevin Lord and Tiffany Gillespie, will be among 14 swimmers tackling 13 kilometres along the Severn River on Saturday. Bang, 46, and her group of young Oakville swimmers will plunge into the water between 6 and 6:30 a.m. at Lock 43 at Swift Rapids and swim downstream to Lock 44 at Big Chute. This will be Bang's sixth annual Swim for the Cure to raise funds for breast cancer research through the Canadian Cancer Society. Swim for the Cure has raised about $51,000 over the past five years. "We raised about $13,000 to $14,000 last year, and this year, because we have only half the number of swimmers, we hope to raise $8,000," said Bang. Bang, who swam Lake Rosseau with her friend Joy Greene for three years, launched Swim for the Cure "because finding a cure for breast cancer is really important to me because of two special women in my life, my nana and my aunt. "I helped my nana, Christina Morgan, find her breast cancer when I was 10 years old 36 years ago," said Bang. "We were wrestling and racing around and I elbowed her. I watched her go through surgery and her recovery ­ at that time you had a total mastectomy and I held her prosthesis. It had a great impact on my life." She died a number of years ago ­ but not from breast cancer. "She was a survivor." The other influence was her father's sister Teri Morgan "who got metastic bone cancer from her breast cancer and has an amazing will to live. She was cancer free for 11 years before the bone cancer was identified four years ago." Bang offers her swimmers from Oakville, Brampton, Georgetown, Hamilton and Aurora the option of swimming and entire distance or completing the route in relay fashion. "This year, everybody is doing the distance," she said, "and we have more younger swimmers." Her sons Mark, 18, and Eric, 16, have participated for four years. Both are distance swimmers. Eric's friend Kevin Lord, 17, is a second-year participant, and Tiffany Gillespie, 18, Mark's friend and co-worker at the Oakville YMCA, is a first-time swimmer. But it won't be her first experi- ence at swimming distances for charity. Last December, she and the other 40 lifeguards swam 83 kms by completing laps in the pool to raise money for the Y's Give Kids a Chance campaign. "It was an overnight event and we raised about $5,000." Gillespie is swimming for her mom's friend who has breast cancer and her best friend's mother, a breast cancer survivor. "We will not only be helping to prevent their own diagnosis of breast cancer but will bring hope through their efforts to the 22,000 women who will receive a diagnosis of breast cancer in Canada this year," said Bang. "The Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative has identified that women who are active throughout their lives cut their risk of developing breast cancer by 42 per cent and it is never to late to become active," she said, adding, "my nana has always encouraged me to be active." Donations can sent to the Canadian Cancer Society, Orillia & District Unit, 190 Memorial Ave., Unit F, Orillia, ON, L3V 5X6, phone 1-800-555-7922 or e-mail orillia@ccsont.org. For more information see www.swimforthecure.net.