15-Year-Old Student Crosses The Country To Swim Around Manhattan For Cancer Research - 'Nothing Compared To The Struggle That Cancer Families Go Through'

Maya Merhige, 15, a high school junior from Berkeley, California crossed the country and finished a 28.5-mile swim around New York City's Island of Manhattan, known as the 20 Bridges Swim, to raise charity money for cancer research.

Merhige swam to benefit Swim Across America over the weekend and completed the challenge in eight hours, forty-three minutes.

According to WABC-TV, Merhige told reporters, "Whatever I'm doing in my swimming, or whatever pain I go through in my swims, it's really nothing compared to the struggle that cancer families go through. And that really pushes me to keep going forward."

The outlet reported that the young lady wasn't alone on her journey either, she had a team nearby including an observer and her parents. With the Swim Across America charity, she's raised over $60,000 in the past eight years. 

"Knowing that the money I'm raising makes a difference really encourages me to keep going," she said. "And through my fundraising, I hope that we can kind of end cancer."

Breitbart News noted that Merhige's swim took her across three rivers, the East River, the Harlem River, and the Hudson.

“Sam Hallward, a family friend of mine, passed away from brain cancer (DIPG) in December 2022 at the age of 12,” Merhige told Swim Across America. “He was one of the most outgoing and adventurous kids I knew, and I just know that he would have loved to be in all of the awesome places that I get to go while swimming.”

According to SwimSwam, at 14 years old last year Merhige became the youngest swimmer to cross the Catalina Channel off the California Coast. In January, KTVU reported she became the youngest person ever to swim the 28-mile Kaiwi Channel in Hawaii after dedicating the effort to curing pediatric cancer.

That swim was also dedicated to Sam. "I continued to motivate myself by remembering why I was doing it… in dedication and memory of a friend who passed away last month…pushed me and go forward," said Merhige.

The 15-year-old said that swimming the Kaiwi Channel was something she'd wanted to do since she was just 9 and that their late friend "would've loved it."

In an interview with 'CBS Evening News' Maya told reporters that she used to despise swimming. But today she's among the most newsworthy in the world, not just for the distances she's gone, but for the reason why. 

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