"When you swim, you can't look directly at the end; you have to set small goals. This worked very well for me during cancer. If I had thought all the time: 'It's 16 chemotherapies... that's a lot!', I wouldn't have made it. Instead, I focused on each chemo to, little by little, overcome the cancer," she recalls. Rosa Mari fully recovered in 2017, but that doesn't mean her long-distance race is over. Last September 15, she went back into the sea for the 6.5 km crossing in Cadaqués, with a goal that went beyond reaching land: to raise funds for cancer research.
It was a campaign, Strokes against cancer, that she and 49 other swimmers promoted with the support of the FERO Foundation and which contributes to the development of oncological studies. The idea of combining strokes and science came in 2014 from her friend and fellow swimmer Verònica Sagnier, who had lost her mother to breast cancer. This September, the campaign became "The cause of the month" of migranodearena.org, an award with which the solidarity crowdfunding platform and the "la Caixa" Social Project recognize the most popular initiatives.
The money raised will go to research carried out by the Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona in the field of immunotherapy and liquid biopsy; two methods that, as the director of the FERO Foundation, Piru Cantarell, says, reduce the side effects of tumor treatment and allow for more personalized treatment for patients.
Breast cancer prevented Rosa Mari from swimming long distances for two years, but she finally returned to the sea and now thinks that her achievement has been the achievement of many other people and humbly accepts that her story is an example of overcoming adversity for others. "It's a way to show them that I have risen from a fall, that I am myself again, and that everything can be overcome," she says. She then points out that, just as with swimming competitions, the most important thing to overcome cancer is to trust in one's own abilities. "Although, for strength not to falter, it is essential to have the support and affection of others. When you are exhausted, it is essential for someone to tell you: 'Keep going, we can do this!'"
Rosa Mari assures that both upon finishing the last crossing and upon hearing the diagnosis that put an end to her illness, she was accompanied by a strangely similar feeling of victory. The reason? According to her, in both cases "the fight is similar" and "immobility is synonymous with defeat". Fortunately, the swimmer has always been far from staying still. And many more have followed and will follow her with strokes.
Photography: Right – Mònica Figueras / Left – Sara Costa Text: Alba Losada
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