Ageless Radio Feb 11: Pat Gallant-Charette talks about of Swim for Your Heart, Feb14

Feb. 8, 2012 - PRLog -- Go Grandma! You can do it, if you try!

Meet Pat Gallant-Charette, a native of Maine, Westbrook resident, University of Southern Maine graduate, wife, mother, sister, grandmother, and full time nurse. In her spare time, 60 year old Pat is a marathon swimmer. In her first attempt of the English Channel, success was snatched from her grasp in July 2008. After swimming 16 hours in the Channel, with the lights in French homes encouraging her and still feeling strong, Pat fought impenetrable currents for four hours just 1.7 miles fom the finish line when her crew elected to end the attempt. While Pat had made it across....and that was a dream come true...the ultimate challenge had eluded her. In 2009, prevaling winds prevented Pat from starting her second attempt of the English Channel. Pat returned to Maine determined to return to Dover for another attempt. She came late to the Gallant-Charette swimming club. Her son Tom was on the Westbrook High School swim team and her youngest brother, Robbie Gallant twice won the 2.4 mile Peaks to Portland swim. Robbie, just 34 years old, was a loving husband, and devoted father to three year old Christopher when he suffered a fatal heart attack fourteen years ago. Soon after Robbie's untimely death, Pat's son Tom said, "Ma, I'd like to swim the Peaks to Portland as a tribute to Uncle Robbie." Pat replied, "Tom, that's so sweet, I wish I could do the same." Looking at her encouragingly, Tom said, "You could, if you tried." Those words inspired Pat to swim Peaks. At the age of 46 her fitness regime had consisted mainly of walking, but with a regular workout schedule at the local pool, Pat gradually built up her endurance. She met the qualifying requirement for the Peaks to Portland swim the following year. You can only imagine her emotion on finding her young nephew Christopher waiting for her at the end of that swim. Pat continues to enter the Peaks to Portland every year and Christopher, now 16, cheers her on. That success encouraged her to seek other goals, including a double crossing of Maine's Big Sebago Lake (12 miles), the Great Chesapeake Bay swim (4.4 miles) and the Strait of Gibraltar swim (9 miles), where stroke by stroke Pat repeated her mantra, "You can, if you try". Then on June 16, 2010 Pat swam across the Strait of Gibraltar (Spain to Africa) in a time of 3 hours and 28 minutes. And much to her surprise, she placed 3rd fastest woman's time since 1928, set the U.S.Woman's record for fastest time, and the new record for the fastest time for any woman or man over the age of 50 worldwide. Pat nurtured the belief that she is capable of swimming the English Channel, considered by many to be the greatest test of a long distance swimmer. While nominally 20.7 miles, strong tides and currents in the Channel make the real distance covered by swimmers 30 miles or more. On August 22, 2011 Pat entered the English Channel determined to reach France. With her crew of brother David, sister-in-law Jeannie, and nephews' Kyle and Chris (Robbie's son), she reached her dream in a time of 15 hours and 57 minutes. Upon completion of her swim, she looked up to the sky and said, "this is for you, Robbie". Pat set the oldest American woman's record at the age of 60. The English Channel Swimming Association awarded her with the "Rosemary George Award for the 'Most Meritorious Swim of the Year' for 2011." Then, on October 18, 2011 Pat set a new World Record for the Oldest Woman to swim from Catalina Island to the mainland of California ( 21 mile swim). She was accompanied by her crew: brother Bill and sister-in-law Jean. Her swim was dedicated to her brother Johnny who died at the age of seventeen in a tragic accident. Pat founded "Swim for your Heart..Feb 14" a global swim event to bring an awareness of heart disease and prevention.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, heart disease is the No. 1 killer of Americans. With her event, "Swim for your Heart," Charette hopes to use Valentine's Day to educate people around the world about heart health.

Her brother's death in 1997 and the death of American swimmer Fran Crippen, presumably from a heart-related issue (an official cause of death was never released), led Charette to call on the world swim community for action.

“My original post to the swim community asked them to join me in swimming for a cause by making a donation to their favorite heart charity on Feb. 14,” she said.

When she began “Swim for your Heart” it only caught on in a few countries and was very slow to build steam in the U.S. Initial lack of response, Charette believes, was due to the lack of media coverage.

“I didn't know how to get attention through the media,” she said. “Someone who was participating in Mexico said 'Why don't you put it on Facebook?' When I did put it on Facebook, it went viral; now we have 25 countries participating and several U.S. states.”

“Swim for your Heart” is not a formally organized event. People around the state can participate in their local pools – or in a lake, river or the ocean if they are brave enough to take the chilly plunge.

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