[ Photo Courtesy: Swim Across America ]
>> Vicki Bunke
Amazing Grace: Mother, Vicki Bunke, Swimming in 14 Swim-Across-America Events to Honor Her Daughter BY DAVID RIEDER
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wimming was never part of the Bunke family’s life. Daughters Grace and Caroline played soccer and ran. Vicki Bunke, their mother, knew how to swim but never swam seriously. “I wouldn’t have drowned,” Vicki said. “But I splashed around. I didn’t swim. I had never swum a lap before.” But when Grace was 11 years old, she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma (bone cancer) in her left femur, and it had metastasized into both of her lungs. That earth-shattering diagnosis would forever impact the family, but it also brought swimming into the Bunkes’ lives. Grace beat the cancer into remission, but when she was 14, the disease returned, this time in her lungs and her spine. Grace passed away the day before her 15th birthday. And more than three years later, swimming is the means by which Vicki and her family honor Grace, by their full support of a cause near and dear to Grace’s heart. When Grace’s cancer returned in 2017, she became acquainted with Swim Across America, which had made the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children’s Hospital of Atlanta one of its beneficiaries. Since its first event in 1987, Swim Across America has held charity swims throughout the country to raise money for cancer research. Each swim raises money to donate to a local medical organization funding
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projects seeking new treatments and therapies for various cancers. Grace already knew her long-term prognosis was poor when she learned about the one-mile race taking place in Atlanta through Swim Across America, but she was desperate to participate. So she pulled out all stops to make sure she could swim. “She wanted to participate so badly and swim the mile that she stopped her chemotherapy regimen because the chemotherapy wasn’t allowing her to swim,” Vicki said. “So she swam the mile in Lake Lanier for Swim Across America. This is in 2017, September 2017, and she ended up being the top fundraiser in Atlanta. She swam with one of our nurses. And it was really kind of a magical day. It was awesome. “They have kindred passions, curing cancer and swimming” Grace was starting high school at the time, and she was even able to race for her team in a handful of high school meets before her condition worsened in early 2018. She had every intention of participating in Swim Across America when it returned to Atlanta later that year, but Grace realized she
