Two-time cancer survivor Jon Fenton recently handed big cheques of over $40,000 total to Cancer Care Manitoba and Alberta after attempting to swim across Lake Winnipeg this summer. "I tried to swim across Lake Winnipeg from Grand Beach to Gimli," says Fenton. "I didn't quite make it. I came up short, but I didn't leave anything out there." Fenton attempted to complete this huge task on Aug. 3. A Manitoba native now living in Alberta, Fenton wanted to swim this distance to help raise money for cancer research, as it has been monumental surviving two cancer diagnoses. "The final total was $41,450, and the bulk of it came to Manitoba. That's where the attention was, and the event happened there. I got close to $9,000 for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. They reached out, and we did one of those giant lottery cheques. Here's the symbolism. It was a lottery cheque, but I won the lottery twice, getting through cancer." Meeting a Legend Fenton knew the 26 km across Lake Winnipeg could physically be done, and one reason was Kathie Leitch. "Last year, I was looking up people who swam across Lake Winnipeg, and the very first person to do it was a lady named Kathie Leitch. She did it when she was 20 years old in 1955. She did it beside her dad and boyfriend in a canoe. No Gatorade, no power gel, no wetsuit. I thought, If she can do it without all that technology and assistance, how hard can it be?" Leitch heard about what Fenton did and gave him a call. The two met up for a meeting, and Fenton brought her a customized shirt that said Kathie's Big Swim' with the words 'completed' on the back. "She's 91 years old. I asked her, 'Kathie, how did you do it?' I was eight and a half hours in the water, and she was almost 17 hours. She said, 'To tell you the truth, I never even trained for it. I did it on a dare from my dad.'" Fenton is going to train and attempt the swim again next summer. He's invited Leitch to come and cheer him on. Sign up to get the latest local news headlines delivered directly to your inbox every afternoon. Send your news tips, story ideas, pictures, and videos to news@portageonline.com. PortageOnline encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the PortageOnline app.