Going the distance

Jessie Sheppard plans to swim the Northumberland Strait on Sunday, July 13. (Nick Pearce Photo)

She’s ready to take the plunge. After months of long-distance training and suffering from “swimmer’s hickey,” (the annoying chafing you get from bathing-suit straps), Jessie Sheppard is poised to do a 13-kilometre swim across the Northumberland Strait.

“I kind of don’t believe it yet,” says Ms. Sheppard, 26. “I’m not excited. I’m not scared. I’m just kind of in a neutral zone. But ask me on Saturday night and I’ll probably have another answer.”

Slathered head to foot in vaseline, she'll take to the water when the tide is at its lowest on Sunday morning. She leaves from Cape Tormentine, N.B. and expects to be on the other side, at Noonan’s Marsh in Prince Edward Island, by noon or 1 p.m.

The thing is, the swim across the strait is just part one of Jessie’s big adventure. A month later, she’ll be putting on her hiking boots and climbing Mt. Kilimanjario, the world’s highest free-standing, snow-covered equatorial mountain. Ms. Sheppard, a master’s student in health promotion, is embarking on the two marathon challenges as a member of the Arthritis Society’s Joints In Motion team. Her inspiration—and one of her biggest cheerleaders—is classmate Meg Hasek-Watt who has battled inflammatory arthritis since she was a teenager.

“I’m just doing things one step at a time, so to speak,” she says. “I’ll do my swim on Sunday, rest up and totally recover, and then I’ll be right back at it.”

For Ms. Sheppard, it’s all about health promotion: “It’s a good way to show how you can be active in your life … and maybe it’ll get people thinking to get moving too. I’ve already had a couple friends sign up to do triathlons. They reckon if I can do it, they can too.”

As a Joints In Motion volunteer, Ms. Sheppard is also raising money for the Arthritis Society. She’s just a wee short of her $9,000 goal. To contribute to her swim and climb, click here.