Swimmer to cross Lake Ontario raising funds for mental health, Alzheimer’s
Global News
After making a harrowing swim across Lake Huron just over a decade ago, a Paris, Ont., man plans to do a similar venture across Lake Ontario.
A Paris, Ont., man set to swim across Lake Ontario admits he’ll likely have some drama this weekend considering how exhausting a similar venture was a decade ago.
“On the last one, (I) threw up for 30 minutes, fell asleep, woke up underwater a few times, just sheer exhaustion,” Jason Kloss recalls from a 65-kilometre swim across Lake Huron.
“My shoulder popped out of place…. It was not a fun swim, through the night specifically.”
The 36-year-old will take on the 51-kilometre swim between Niagara Region and Toronto starting Friday, raising funds and awareness for mental health and suicide prevention.
Kloss began training for the stint in June of last year following time off to cope with a “mentally exhausting” pandemic and circumstances leading to the deaths of two people close to him in recent times.
“I started swimming again just for my own mental health after losing my grandpa to dementia and Alzheimer’s, and then a friend that ultimately died by suicide,” Kloss said.
“(I) wanted to do more and thought, I can swim, so let’s do another swim and raise some awareness.”
He was just 24 when he swam across Lake Huron in late August of 2011 entering the water at Port Sanilac, Mich., on a Friday morning and reaching the shore of Grand Bend, Ont., on Saturday afternoon.