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7 · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, August 19, 2009 Living Oakville Beaver LIVING EDITOR: ANGELA BLACKBURN Rob Zamuner SNOWBLOWER LAWNMOWER, CHAINSAW for most brands Call CURRENT POWER MACHINERY INC. 905 PARTS, SERVICE, SALES 1661 Lakeshore Rd. W. Mississauga (5 Stop lights east of Southdown Road in Clarkson) 8 2 2 - 4 2 11 Phone: 905-337-5560 Fax: 905-337-5571 e-mail: ablackburn@oakvillebeaver.com PHOTOS BY NIKKI WESLEY / OAKVILLE BEAVER Lea Zamuner REACHING OUT: Oakville resident Frank Zamuner, above, set out to swim 1,000 lengths of Brookdale Pool over the course of last week in the inaugural Swim for Mental Health. Backed by a team of family and friends, Zamuner and his team logged 3,000 lengths and raised more than $12,000 for the mental health unit and day program at Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH). Zamuner goes to great lengths for OTMH By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF ou may not want to admit it... but, then again, what's to admit, that you're sick? "What's to admit about that?" asks long-time resident Lea Zamuner. "There's nothing to be ashamed of, the brain is just like any other organ, just like the heart, it can get sick," said her husband, Frank. The 73-year-old Frank was joined by supporters -- upwards of a dozen in the pool, and many more outside -- as he swam 1,000 lengths of Brookdale Pool throughout last week in the first annual Swim for Mental Health. In fact, Zamuner scored the best weather yet of summer 2009 and logged not 1,000, but a collective 3,000 lengths of the pool -- raising a whopping $12,000 for OakvilleTrafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH). The cash is earmarked for the hospital's mental health unit and its mental health day program. Oakville's Zamuner family was thrust into the limelight years ago when son Rob embarked on a hockey career that took him to the big leagues of the NHL. Now, the family is thrusting itself into the spotlight again as a means of not only raising money for local men- Y tal health services, but also to dispel stigma attached to mental illnesses. Frank, a long-time swimmer, hit his stride in the fundraising. Both he and his wife were taken aback by the many, many people who offered support -- and the many people they discovered had someone in their family, or someone they knew, affected by mental illness or depression. No strangers to teamwork, the Zamuner family first learned to deal with the mental illness of depression, and then to take it into the public eye, thanks to patriarch Frank. He knows firsthand the frustrations of the disease, the long wait for treatment and stigma attached to it. Yet, according to Frank, until mental illness is revealed as the epidemic he believes it to be, funding, programming and the will to improve either won't come about. He and his wife Lea have made Oakville their home since 1965. When Frank came through a triple heart bypass with flying colours in 2005, he was knocked for a complete surprise when he found himself diagnosed with depression in its wake. "After the surgery I found I couldn't sleep. After about a week of not sleeping, I started feeling like I just didn't want to get up out of bed. I real- "After the surgery I found couldn't sleep. After about a week of not sleeping, I started feeling like I just didn't want to get up out of bed. I really didn't want to do anything at all and I was feeling sorry for myself. That was the beginning of it." Frank Zamuner ly didn't want to do anything at all and I was feeling sorry for myself. That Frank Zamuner was the beginning of it," said Frank. Lea said if she told someone she sonal components -- it is not a perhad cancer, they'd be sympathetic. If sonal weakness or failure. Lea said she supported her hussomeone hears a person is depressed, she said they may very well react by band and their son was a huge supthinking, or saying, get your act port to them both. Their daughter, Tania, makes her home in Ottawa, but together and get on with it. Lea admits, in the beginning, she was supportive from there. Lea read books and when Frank was not so saintly that she understood what her husband was going through. sought medical help, she attended, However, teamwork is not a for- when she could, with him. Both she and their son were at eign concept to the sports-minded Brookdale Pool with Frank as he and Zamuner family. And feeling down temporarily is supporters, including his son Rob, totally different than having depres- pulled themselves from the pool Friday afternoon. sion. "He did this to raise awareness and Depression is a disorder with biological, psychological, and interper- also to raise some funds and he's done well in both departments," said Lea. "While looking for help I found out how great a need there is for psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists and related medical equipment. Depression does not discriminate; it affects people from all walks of life, young and old, rich and poor," said Frank, noting the very first step in getting better is to count on yourself, no matter how difficult that may be. For Frank, he said going to the program and seeing so many "suffer," while he was feeling better, made him want to do something to help. "This is the first time I've ever done anything like this," he said, adding he'd like to do it again -- only bigger -- next year. "As a society, we must do a better, better job," said Frank, of removing stigmatization, providing funding and more timely treatment of mental illness. "The patients are getting younger and younger, too, we must do a better job," he said. Frank said he derives peace from swimming -- he clocks 100-110 lengths of the pool six or seven days a week -- and now finding a way to help others has also helped him. For more information on Swimming for Mental Health, visit www.oakvillehospitalfoundation.com.